Permits this season were issued for the culling of 76 bears, with 28 animals having been killed before this permission was suspended.

According to wildlife researcher Peep Männil, the court's position is that significant damage would need to have occurred for a bear to be judged a nuisance. What remains unclear, however, is how to measure that when eight bears thin out a cornfield, as in one case.

"The damage caused by one bear is tolerable, but the damage caused by eight bears is already significant. The court also said that maybe the wrong bear was being shot — not the animal that has been eating corn for a month, but one which was there for the first time. So the situation is rather absurd," Männil told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

The suspension of bear hunting stems from complaints filed by an animal protection NGO, MTÜ Eesti Suurkiskjad.

The hunting of large predators in Estonia is permitted but only on the basis of permits issued on a regional quota basis.

The second-tier Tallinn Circuit Court found the state Environmental Board's special permits issued had not been based on the clear identification of specific nuisance bears or on evidence that it would be the animal actually causing the damage which could be targeted.

The annual bear hunting season was due to end October 31, but thanks to the circuit court ruling, it ended on the last day of September, with the exception in place for bears adjudged to be a "nuisance."

Then on Wednesday, the first-tier Tallinn Administrative Court ruled that the hunting of five nuisance bears in specific areas: Kuusalu, Harju County, Alutaguse, Lüganuse (both in Ida-Viru County), Türi, Järva County, and Elva, Tartu County, with one animal per zone to be culled, had to be halted too.

The court had ruled that hunting a single animal was not an effective solution and that alternative measures should be explored first.

There are an estimated 1,000 brown bears in Estonia's forests at present.

This figure is about twice what it was a decade ago, and the Environmental Board considers the hunting of nuisance individuals justified, and on this basis plans to challenge the matter in court.

"Since bears are doing very well in Estonia — around ten years ago there were about 500, today there are 1,000 — in order to prevent conflicts with humans, the Environmental Board considers the hunting of nuisance bears justified, and we will appeal this decision," said the agency's chief, Rainer Vakra.

Vakra added the agency will take the matter all the way to the Supreme Court.

Vakra, a former SDE MP, conceded that it will likely be necessary to abandon the general bear hunting quota, and justification that a hunted animal does indeed constitute a nuisance individual will likely in future need to be stronger, he said.

"If we look at bear hunting permits from ten years ago compared to today, they are now very precisely reasoned — why and how this helps to prevent conflict between humans and bears, what damage the bear has caused. So, issuing well-argued and justified permits will certainly be our path forward," Vakra said.

Spokesperson for the NGO Eleri Lopp declined to speak to "Aktuaalne kaamera," though the organization did issue a press release stating that the hunting of large carnivores must be based on scientific arguments and the strict protection obligations arising from the European Habitats Directive.

The Ministry of Climate also has on its table a proposal to request the downgrading of the bear's protection status in Europe, however.

The growth in bear numbers in the region has seen examples of the animal found in Lithuania, where hunting in the 19th century had practically eradicated the species there.

The "nuisance" argument has also been used in the recent permission to hunt wolves inside a national park, the first time such permission has been given.

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