For the first time in decades, brown bear I gave birth to a baby in Lithuania. Wildlife cameras captured a mother and her cubs in a forest in the northwestern part of the country, marking the first time the species has been seen breeding for generations on Lithuanian soil.
Raimonas Daša, chairman of the Lithuanian Game and Fishermen’s Association, told local media. Made in Vilnius With this birth, the Lithuanian bear will be added to the country’s fauna. red book protected species. “As far as I know, according to the current procedures, only breeding species can be included in this book. Therefore, the first cub was born, which opens a new page in this book,” Dauksha said.
The development overturns a long-standing official position. The IUCN Red List still classifies brown bears as: “extinct” In Lithuania, the designation was based on the decline in Lithuania’s resident population several decades ago. overfishing and habitat loss. The birth of a child suggests that status may no longer reflect reality.
A trail camera captured an adult bear a few weeks ago.
The bear sighting came on the heels of another bear incident. In April 2025, wildlife photographers Marek Kislovsky I checked one of the trail cameras in the Sharchininkai district, near the border with Belarus. He found footage of a full-grown brown bear walking through a forest.
“When I came to check the camera, I couldn’t believe what I saw at first,” Kislovsky said. LRT.lt. “I was really surprised and of course excited that we were able to get a photo like this. At the same time, I was a little worried because I found out that a bear had been roaming in the same area recently.”
Until that moment, he said, he had never heard of bear sightings or even footprints in the Sharchininkai district. The camera was installed on March 31 near Dzervishkes, near the Belarusian border.
The returning bear comes from Estonia
The bears currently infesting Lithuania did not appear out of nowhere. According to Harri Vardman, an associate professor of zoology at the University of Tartu, Estonia’s bear population numbers around 20 million. 1,000 headthe highest level in over a century.
“These habitats are pulsating,” Waldman told ERR News. “When the population is high, bears flood into areas that are not very suitable. Now there are a lot of bears, and they’ve even gone as far as Latvia, but when the population is low, that’s not the case.”
latvia The bear population was never re-established. Local bears were hunted to extinction by the late 1920s. Vardman pointed out that Estonian bears sometimes wander into Latvia, but while Estonia’s population is large, no permanent population has established itself because densities are not yet high enough to sustain permanent spread south.
Public opinion in Lithuania is mixed
A 2012 study published in journal ursus The survey was conducted among approximately 3,800 residents of northwestern Lithuania. The findings indicate that acceptance of returning bears is not guaranteed. This study is the latest peer-reviewed assessment of Lithuanian attitudes towards this species.
As a result of the research, 82.4% A higher percentage of respondents said they would be concerned about their family’s safety if there were bears in their local forest. Most respondents said they would not accept a bear within 10 kilometers of their home. On average, 60-70% of respondents rejected the bear at that distance.
local resident They were more likely to support population control or complete eradication. Urban residents generally support increasing bear numbers. Berry and mushroom pickers, who spend a lot of time in the forest, are among the most powerful opponents of the growing bear population. The study also found that 22.5% of respondents wanted to take action against bears, even if the bears lived far from their residences.
The world’s population remains large
The return of brown bears to Lithuania is a local event, not a global conservation crisis. of IUCN Red List Classify species as follows “Minimal concern” Around the world, it is estimated that 110,000 adults Across North America, Europe, and Asia. Population trends are described as stable.
IUCN’s own assessment, last updated in 2016, notes that bears regularly enter Lithuania from Latvia and Belarus. The report explains that these are roaming individuals and not yet large enough to be considered an occupied range. Recent baby births suggest a threshold may be approaching.
The species’ official range map still lists Lithuania as “extinct.” This designation currently does not match what trail cameras record. IUCN notes that even if the world’s species is safe, small and isolated subpopulations, such as those emerging in the Baltic states, remain vulnerable.
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