Deadly bear attacks shake Romania - can allow more hunting

- Wherever I go in this area, people say there are too many bears.

Karoly Pal is reportedly speaking to BBC News. He works as a forester in Neaua, Transylvania, and has received complaints from farmers who say the crop was destroyed by the animals.

Brown bears have also attacked people in Romania. In recent weeks, three men have been killed in bear attacks, according to BBC News, and earlier this year six deaths have been reported. This compares with the years 2000-2015 - when a total of 11 people lost their lives in bear attacks, according to a scientific report published by the journal Nature in June.

Jens Frank is a researcher at the Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agriculture. He says that the attack of large predators is an increasing trend both in Europe and in North America.

- More meetings occur as the predator populations and the number of people increase. They can lead to attacks, but usually the meetings only lead to an observation, says Jens Frank, who researches problem situations with large predators.

In Sweden, two people have been killed in bear attacks over the past 20 years, according to the SLU researcher, and about two people are seriously injured each year. Jens Frank points out that the attacks in Scandinavia occur almost exclusively in connection with moose or bear hunting:

- Being attacked when just walking in the woods is extremely rare.

In Romania there is a large bear population of about 6,000 bears. Trophy hunting for brown bears has been banned since 2016, but in September came a bill that could allow hunting for the bear for a five-year period. The proposal must be approved by the country's Chamber of Deputies in order to become a law, but already conservationists demand that it be rejected, writes BBC News. The critics demand, among other things, clearer restrictions on the proposed hunting permit.