Slovak Wildlife Society

With increased numbers of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Slovakia since the second half of the 20th century, conflicts between people and bears have increased. Dangerous situations arise for example due to poor storage of food or refuse. Negative aspects of bears often make news headlines, promoting a heightened sense of fear.

The Slovak Wildlife Society responded to this situation by launching the B.E.A.R.S. Project: Bear Education, Awareness and Research in Slovakia. By finding ways to mitigate conflicts, providing information as well as practical help on how to prevent problems, we hope to foster greater understanding and acceptance of bears.

Foster greater tolerance and understanding of bears in Slovakia.

Raise public awareness and knowledge of bears and bear safety.

Provide the best available information based on scientific research.

Encourage children and youth to take an active interest in nature.

Improve the quality of data available to managers.

Support bear conservation and habitat protection.

Our history

We began the project in 2003 with a survey of public opinion, attitudes and knowledge of bears, wolves and lynx. We found neutral to positive attitudes toward bears. However, the level of knowledge that local residents and tourists had about how to behave in bear country was low. People most often mentioned a lack of information and problems with people as the most important problems in the management of this species. More than 90% of respondents wanted to learn more about large carnivores. We therefore targeted our project mainly on education work. So far we have been working on the following activities and materials: