"It could be said that [the Estonian bear] has never lived so well in recorded history — its numbers are higher than ever before," Männil said on the radio program "Ökoskoop." The species (Eurasian brown bear) is also showing very strong growth indicators. Its range is expanding, which has seen a considerable bear population emerge in Latvia based on bears from Estonia. According to a report published in June by the Environment Agency, Estonia had 112 different bear families with cubs of the same age. Based on last summer's data, the total population reached at least 1,000 individuals.

This year, the bear hunting season, which usually begins in August, was temporarily halted due to a court dispute. In the wildlife researcher's view, postponing the start of the hunt from August to September is not a major issue for either the bears or hunters. "Those few bears will be taken a month earlier or a month later — from the bear's point of view, it makes little difference," he said. For hunters, September hunting might even be better, as the animals' pelts are thicker and more valuable by then, according to Männil. However, the longer pause does allow bears to cause more damage to fields.

Paradoxically, Männil said the high bear numbers are largely the result of developments in agriculture, particularly the expansion of corn cultivation. In the past, bears were attracted to oats, but nowadays, the main draw is corn with its high sugar content. "For a bear, it's an excellent fattening food in the autumn, when the cobs start to ripen," Männil explained.

Fields serve as major gathering spots where even bears that normally live farther away come to build up fat reserves for hibernation. The plentiful food also makes the animals stronger, allowing females to give birth to and raise larger litters. At the same time, this leads to significant agricultural damage. Männil noted that the state currently compensates for bear-related damage to beehives, silage bales and livestock.

Crop fields, however, are not covered by these measures. In total, these losses could exceed the damage categories currently compensated. "There's no good overview of the size of these crop losses. Bears especially make heavy use of cornfields and the patches they trample and eat can be quite large," Männil added.

Farmers and hunters try to prevent such damage using various deterrents, such as scare devices and noisemakers. In practice, their effect is often short-lived. "The animals quickly learn there's no real danger," Männil said. In his view, building protective infrastructure such as electric fencing around large crop fields would be economically unreasonable.

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The denser the bear population becomes, the greater the chance people will encounter them. Männil stressed that there is no need to be afraid of going into the forest, but one should exercise caution there. Dangerous situations usually arise unexpectedly and at short range, especially with a mother bear and her cubs who may attack in self-defense. "The higher the population density, the more likely it is that such incidents will occur," Männil warned.

Since 2000, there have been six recorded bear attacks in Estonia resulting in human injury. None have been fatal.

High population density forces young bears to seek habitat closer to human settlements, where there are fewer dominant male bears. "A bear perceives an adult male as a much greater threat than a human. When the density gets high, it's precisely these young bears leaving their mothers who intentionally move near people, because those areas are safer for them," the expert explained. This, in turn, increases the risk of conflicts.

At present, bear density is highest in eastern and central Estonia, particularly in Ida-Viru, Lääne-Viru and Tartu counties. However, numbers have also grown rapidly in Rapla and Viljandi counties, according to Männil. Bears are still sparsely distributed in southern Estonia, such as in Võru County, as well as in western Estonia and on the islands.

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