Bears in Transylvania

In Transylvania, bears live close to people. Too close, sometimes. The brown bear is strictly protected by law. Since 2016, hunting has been banned nationwide, though in exceptional, legally justified cases, relocation, sedation, or culling is still permitted.
As the bear population grows, individuals increasingly push each other out of their natural territories — each animal requiring its own space. This territorial pressure has led to more frequent encounters with humans, causing accidents and substantial economic damage. Logging, habitat fragmentation, and supplemental feeding further encourage bears to move closer to inhabited areas. Current estimates place the brown bear population between 6,000 and 10,000 individuals.
Protecting both human safety and the species itself demands a careful balance — ecological, social, and economic.