Border animal

There are an estimated 150 brown bears here in the forests of northern Norway, and another 3,000 are spread across Scandinavia. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) regularly monitor how the population of this large predator is changing.

One of the methods is to extract information from the bear’s DNA. To obtain the DNA, NIBIO researchers install hair traps made of barbed wire in the Arctic forests.

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To lure the bear into the hair trap, a mixture of fish fat and cow blood is spread out, which attracts bears. When the animal walks over the barbed wire, some hair gets caught. The captured hair sample is later analyzed in the laboratory.

“In the Pasvik area, there is a connection with Finnish and especially Russian bears,” Jonas Kindberg of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research told the Barents Observer. “So we have bears that are born in one country and can then turn up in another. The young males, for example, have no problem moving 500 kilometers. On the Russian side, we don’t really know what’s going on anymore because of the war.”

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, scientific cooperation between Russia and Norway was suspended. The Barents Observer asked representatives of the Russian Pasvik nature reserve for a statement on the issue, but unfortunately did not receive a response by the time of publication of this article.

DNA

In the laboratory, researcher Ida Fløystad carefully cuts through the hair roots – they are the main source from which the bear’s DNA is extracted.

David Kniha, NIBIO researcher, shows the Barents Observer one of the previously analyzed samples:

“The hair we have here comes from bear MO90. MO stands for Murmansk Oblast – so this bear was first registered in Russia and then received the Norwegian code FI (Finnmark) 280 when it was registered in Norway. It is a female,” David Kniha told the Barents Observer.

Jonas Kindberg of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research says that the bear population in Scandinavia is increasing. As a result, bears are increasingly being spotted near houses in the Pasvik area.

Runar Kjær, chief engineer at NIBIO, shows a video he took with his mobile phone a few weeks ago. From the kitchen window this summer, his family watched a brown bear run quickly into a forest.

“This is the first time we’ve seen it live. I was kind of shocked and impressed. It’s kind of unbelievable.”

“We know they are there. We know there are quite a lot of bears in the Pasvik Valley, but it is quite rare to see them,” Runar told the Barents Observer, adding that he is convinced that bears do not pose a threat to his family.

“Bears in Europe and especially in Scandinavia do not consider humans as food,” Jonas Kindberg explains to the Barents Observer. “They avoid humans as much as possible. That’s why they live mainly in border areas. Berries are a staple food for bears. They also eat moose, calves and reindeer.”

Border migration

A few years ago, FSB border guards showed the Barents Observer journalist a video in which a mother with three boys is about to cross the border fence from Russia to Norway. This scene is typical for the Pasvik region.

As the bear population continues to grow, migration between countries will continue. Collaboration between scientists on both sides is essential to protect these magnificent wildlife.