Brown bear

A veterinarian is due to determine whether a brown bear - a protected species - found dead on the outskirts of Florina in northern Greece on Tuesday was poisoned or died of other causes.

Arcturos, a Florina-based bear conservation group, said it found the animal dead a day after alerting authorities in Florina that a bear had been spotted near the town.

"There is no such thing as harmonious coexistence between man and bear; that's how nature intended it. However, our coexistence can be made more manageable if we take certain measures so that man does not feel defenseless and bears are not threatened."

Greek brown bears Sasha and Alexandra have adapted to life closer to their natural habitat at the Arcturos Shelter for brown bears in Nymphaio, Florina, after a lifetime in captivity in Thessaloniki’s zoo. Arcturos staff confirmed that the two sisters, aged 23, were able to adapt beautifully as their instincts kicked in.

Greek bear conservation group Arcturos has launched a public appeal to gather funds to help treat a brown bear cub that was injured in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) last month. Ushko, the 5-month old male cub, in question is being treated at Arcturos’s Forina sanctuary in Northern Greece. The cub has a broken pelvis as it was possibly hit by a car.

Officers of the Emergency Situations Inspectorate (ISU) captured a bear cub in an uninhabited area, after it ran for several hours on the streets of this city in central Romania.

Photo credit: (c) Bogdan BARBULESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

A brown bear that became caught in a man-made trap in the area of Parakalamo, in the northwestern regional unit of Ioannina, was rescued on Monday by members of the animal welfare groups Arcturos and Callisto.

There has been an increase recently in instances of brown bears, one of the most endangered mammals in Greece, and wild pigs destroying crops.