Bears on the prowl in Slovak towns and villages

The Zelena Ruza farm in the village of Klacno in western Slovakia comprises a beautifully renovated guest house loaded with amenities. The owners even set up a small zoo for their guests to admire sheep, goats, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs and even an ostrich.

But most of the animals died last year when female brown bear went on a rampage and tore them apart. "We have footage from the surveillance camera that shows our ostrich being killed. It was very brutal, you don't want to see that," said Ludmila, the young woman who welcomes guests at reception. The bear had to be shot.

Bears love apples and pears

One family of bears arrived in the village in the fall of 2023, a mother with two cubs. They were apparently interested in an orchard where apples and pears were ripening on the trees. Another bear joined them. But this time no bears had to be shot. After enjoying fallen fruit, they all just retreated back into the woods.

Still, locals in the village, which stretches several kilometers, continued to encounter bears; near the stream, on their way to the store, or to school or friends. "One afternoon in the fall, I was on my way home from soccer and there were bears on the square," said a boy who was about 10 years old. "I'm not scared but I do have pepper spray in my bag."

The local grocer also seemed relaxed. "We had plenty of apples in the fall. So, we expected them to come," he said. They didn't in the end, but he would still like more decisive measures to be taken against the brown bears. "There are a few too many of them, and they are allowing more and more. These days, only the bravest people go out into the forest to pick mushrooms."

Fences and a special bear patrol

To calm the situation, the Slovak Ministry of the Environment has set up special bear patrols in Klacno to police the area. "Our job is to scare off the bears and keep them away from inhabited areas," said one staff member. "We also advise locals on safety measures so that the bears cause as little damage as possible." He said that some villagers wanted more drastic measures.

"More shooting should be allowed so the bears get scared again," said Joseph, a man in his 50s who was in a local pizzeria.

At Zelena Ruza, Ludmila said the situation this spring had been much calmer than in autumn, when many locals had watched from their windows as the bears munched on their fruit. "We haven't had any bears here yet. We know they are in the surrounding forests, but they haven't turned up in the village yet."

Bears roaming the streets 

Klacno is one of Slovakia's "bear villages." Located on the edge of the lowlands with an elevation about 400 meters (1,312 feet) above sea level, it lies just 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the town of Prievidza.

The area is about a four-hour drive from the forests of the High Tatras, the natural habitat of the brown bear in Slovakia — a protected species that may only be shot in exceptional cases. But in recent years the bears have been encroaching further and further into inhabited areas, which has led to repeated attacks on humans. In mid-March, a young bear ran through the streets of Liptovsky Mikulas, a town of 30,000 inhabitants at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. It attacked five people. Although those attacked only suffered minor injuries, hunters tracked down and killed the bear after two weeks of searching.

There have been several more attacks this spring, mostly in the wild and in mountainous areas, but sometimes on marked hiking trails as well. In March, a 31-year-old hiker in the Low Tatras died when she fell from a cliff while trying to escape from a bear.

Bears are a hot political topic in Slovakia

Until last week's assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the issue of bears was one of the most widely covered in the national news. At the end of April, parliament even began debating an amendment to a law that would make it easier to shoot bears exhibiting "problematic behavior."

Minister of the Environment Tomas Taraba of the Slovak National Party (SNS) claimed the amendment would, "not give blanket permission to shoot bears," which he said would remain "strictly protected."

"The bear has become a burden for society as a whole," said Rudolf Huliak, Taraba's party colleague and the mayor of the city of Zvolen. Huliak says he personally shot a bear who was roaming around local gardens in Zvolen just a few weeks ago after first contacting state conservation authorities. "We are fulfilling our election promises," he proudly announced on the social network Telegram.

Opposition politicians have expressed doubts about the practice, however, and called for a systemic solution rather than simply raising shooting quotas.

According to scientists, Slovakia's bear population — estimated to be around 1,300 — is not the problem. Rather, they say it is that towns and villages are not doing nearly enough to protect themselves against an influx of bears. For instance, by ignoring the fact that easily accessible garbage bins and dumpsters are a magnet for hungy bears.

This article was translated from German.