Scandinavian Brown Bears vs Lower 48 States Hunting Correlated to reduced Fatal Attacks

The brown bear (ursus arctos) populations of the world are essentially the same animal, although known by different names. The European brown bear, the Hokkaido brown bear in Japan, the brown bear in Russia, the grizzly bear and kodiak bears in Alaska, and the grizzly bears in Canada and the lower 48 states are genetically the same bear with minor variations. Brown bears are complex mammals which can learn and adapt. Brown bears quickly learn whether humans are dangerous or not. When brown bears are actively hunted, they learn humans are dangerous predators and learn to avoid humans. When the bears are not hunted, bears learn humans are not dangerous.

A study done in Scandinavia, published in 2018, shows human injuries and deaths inflicted by brown bears in Sweden and Norway from 1977 – 2016. There were two deaths and 42 injuries which were not fatal. The bears in Sweden were first protected in 1913. The bear population was estimated to be 130 in 1930. Regular hunting was resumed in 1943. By 1977 the bear population had increased to about 500. By 2008 the population had increased to 3,300. It had been reduced to 2,800 by 2016. 41 of the 44 incidents in the Scandinavian study happened in Sweden. The three which happened in Norway were very close to the Swedish border with Norway.

The brown bear population in the contiguous 48 states between Canada and Mexico increased rapidly during the same period. This allows a comparison with bears in the lower 48 United States from about 1975 to 2016.

In 1975, the United States declared the brown bear to be endangered in the lower 48 states. In the lower 48, there was extremely limited hunting of brown (grizzly) bears in Montana from 1977 to 1991. The population rose from between 700 – 800, mostly in National Parks, in 1977 to near 2000 by 2016. There was no legal hunting for brown (grizzly) bears in the lower 48 United States after 1991.

The population of Sweden (10.5 million) is more than twice the population of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming added together (3.7 million).  Sweden covers about 174 thousand square miles. The three states cover about 328 thousand square miles. In Sweden, most of the hunting for moose and bears is done with trained dogs.

Over the 40 years of the Swedish study, two people were killed by bears. One was a hunter. Both he and his dog were killed near the bear’s den. The other was a man who was killed outside a hunting lodge at night. His body had a blood alcohol level of .27. There had not been any fatal bear attacks recorded in Sweden in the previous 100 years. In Sweden, the bears have been continually hunted since 1943.

In the lower 48 states, the ban on hunting coincided with increasing numbers of fatal attacks on humans by bears. Over the same 40 year period of the Swedish study, from 1977 to 2016, there were 17 fatal attacks on humans by wild brown (grizzly) bears in the lower 48 states.  One of those fatalities was a hunter, who was attacked while processing an elk he had taken.

The Swedish paper found a high correlation with the number of bear attacks and the number of bears.  Alaska has some parks where bears are not hunted, but brown bears have been hunted from 1977 – 2016 in most of the state. Alaska had similar numbers of human fatalities per bear per year as happened in Scandinavia.  From the study:

The 2 fatalities in 39 years in Scandinavia (1977–2016) contrasts, for instance, with the 55 fatalities caused by brown bears in Alaska in 135 years (1880–2015) [43], i.e., there was one fatality every 19.5 years in Scandinavia vs. one fatality every 2.5 years in Alaska. However, the brown bear population is ~10-times larger in Alaska [43] than in Scandinavia, where human population density also is higher. 

The Swedish paper did not attempt to determine the efficacy of firearms in defending against bears:

We have no data on bluff charges or close encounters that did not end in an injury or fatality, nor data on how many bears charged, were shot at, and did not injure the hunter.

In the Scandinavian brown bear study, most injuries were inflicted by bears on hunters (32 of 42). It appears the hunters in Sweden have been protecting the non-hunters by conditioning bears to fear and avoid humans. In contrast, most of the people killed by bears in the lower 48 states were non-hunters (16 of 17).

There were more brown bears in Sweden during this period than in the lower 48 states. The number of fatal bear attacks on humans, per bear, are about ten times higher in the lower 48 states than in Sweden or in Alaska.  The ability of hunters to instill fear of humans in brown bears seems clear.  More research is necessary to determine what methods of hunting brown bears work better than others to condition the bears to respect and avoid humans.

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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Source: http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2025/06/scandinavian-brown-bears-vs-lower-48.html