A farmer in northwestern Greece was confronted with a shocking sight: three of his sheep mauled to death, their demise unequivocally attributed to a bear. The grim discovery underscores the increasingly frequent presence of these once-rare predators in the region.
Anastasios Kasparidis found large paw prints confirming the attack. “It was a bear, a very big one, and they come often now. I wasn’t the only one; it struck elsewhere, too,” he recounted, noting another farmer had lost chickens and pigs.
To protect his remaining livestock, Mr Kasparidis moved his small flock into a sheep pen near his house. “Because in the end I wouldn’t have any sheep,” he explained. “The bears would eat them all.”
Environmentalists have welcomed the rebound of bear and wolf populations in Greece thanks to the protected species designation that banned them from being hunted. But some farmers and residents of rural areas say they now fear for their livelihoods and, in some cases, their safety. They are calling for greater protection in a phenomenon playing out elsewhere in Europe, with some arguing conservation has gone too far and pushing to roll back restrictions.
Brown bears, Greece’s largest predator, have made a remarkable comeback. Their numbers have increased roughly fourfold since the 1990s, said Dimitrios Bakaloudis, a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who specialises in wildlife management and conservation.
Up to an estimated 870 brown bears roam the forests of northern Greece, according to the most recent survey by Arcturos, an environmental organization set up in 1992 that provides a sanctuary for rescued bears and wolves.
And it’s not just bears. Wolves also have seen their numbers rise. While wolves could only be found as far south as central Greece in 2010, they have now spread to the outskirts of Athens and into the Peloponnese in southern Greece, Bakaloudis said.
Their recovery has been sustained in part by the also increasing population of wild boars, which is unrelated to conservation efforts. Rather, a combination of a number of factors, including a reduction of hunting, milder winters and cross-breeding with domestic pigs have led them to reproduce at a faster rate, Bakaloudis explained.
Viewed by many as pests that destroy crops, the sight of a dozen or more boars trotting along sidewalks or snuffling through backyards are no longer uncommon in many parts of Greece.
The larger number of wild animals has also resulted in more contact with humans — the vast majority of whom are unfamiliar with how to behave during an encounter. Lack of familiarity has led to fear in some communities, particularly following a small number of serious incidents this year: a child bitten by a wolf, an elderly man injured by a bear in his yard, a hiker bitten by a bear and another hiker who died after falling into a ravine during a bear encounter.
In Levea, a village of about 660 people surrounded by fields in northwestern Greece, several bear encounters were reported in October, while boars frequently roam through the village, said community president Tzefi Papadopoulou. The bears especially had frightened residents.
“As soon as they heard a dog bark, they were ready to go out with the gun,” she said.
It’s similar in the nearby village of Valtonera, 170 kilometers west of Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki.
“The village used to be without wild animals. In the past, a wolf would appear once in a while,” said Konstantinos Nikolaidis, community president. Now, wild boars, foxes, bears or wolves roam around or even inside the village, he noted.
