Bear numbers rise as court rulings restrict hunting

Bear numbers in Estonia’s forests are increasing each year as court rulings have made traditional bear hunting more difficult, ERR reported.

The Environmental Board has issued special permits to hunt two bears born last year after the animals repeatedly returned to people’s yards despite being driven away from the forest.

Peep Männil, chief game specialist at the Environment Agency, said bear hunting is no longer directly linked to the population size in the same way as hunting other game animals.

“The court found a legal conflict with the conditions of the Nature Directive, since the bear is a strictly protected species in the European Union. Estonia, like any other member state, has no exception,” Männil said.

In 2024, hunters killed 101 bears, the highest number on record, according to the report. However, court rulings took effect near the start of the hunting season last year, and only about 32 bears were killed. Männil said the number is unlikely to be much higher this year and could even be lower.

The court dispute has mainly concerned whether the Environmental Board sufficiently justified bear hunting and whether other preventive measures had been used to prevent conflicts before bears were killed.

Männil said the bear population would stop growing if at least 150 bears were hunted each season.

The Environment Agency estimates the bear population. Its estimate for last year put the number of bears in the wild at at least 1,100. Data for this year are not yet available, but the population is probably higher than last year.

“The bear population has grown by about five percent a year over the past 10 years, and hunting was also very limited last year,” Männil said.

The Environment Agency bases its estimates on data collected across Estonia from hunters and through its own monitoring. It identifies mother bears with cubs of the same age each year, while acknowledging that some bears may go undetected. The agency therefore estimates the minimum population, which may be slightly higher.

Marko Vinni, a hunting adviser to the Estonian Hunters’ Society, also said the bear population is increasing because court rulings have obstructed traditional bear hunting.

Vinni said hunters’ estimate that there could be around 1,500 bears in the wild was not exaggerated. He said the Environment Agency had estimated that about 300 cubs are born each year, and that no effective bear hunting had taken place during the previous two years. Even after allowing for natural mortality, he said, the population could have grown by about 600 bears.