The fact that 43 bears were killed in protection hunts in Västerbotten this spring is part of the reason why there will be no licensed hunting above the cultivation limit this year, says the county administrative board in Västerbotten.

- There are not as many bears left because we have taken out so many, and we will take this into account in the next license hunt that it is necessary to take out bears in the mountain area, says Michael Schneider, predator responsible at the County Administrative Board in Västerbotten and continues:

- We have just received the results from the manure inventory and now we need to sit down with the wildlife management delegation and see what the problem picture looks like, we need to change the target picture for bears and the distribution of bears, says Schneider to Sameradion & SVT Sápmi.

350 bears

The goal picture that the county has is that there should be 350 bears. But the manure inventory that is done every five years does not give a completely accurate picture of how many bears there are in the mountain world.

- We had 14 protection hunts in Vilhelmina Norra Sami village and I think there are far too many, but it is for the simple reason that there are too many bears. I would say that the inventories that are made do not work at all, says Ante Baer.

Some samples from the mountains

Michael Schneider agrees that the manure inventory does not work as well in the mountains as in the forest country. The inventory is made by hunters and reindeer herders collecting manure from bears in areas they move in. Significantly more manure samples come from forest areas than from the mountain areas.

- We do not really know how many bears there are and just this spring we found more bears during the protection hunt than we thought there were in the mountain areas, that way we know that the inventory is not as good there as in the forest areas, says Schneider .