The question about bears comes up at every briefing of mine before an expedition into Sarek — and it is good that it comes up, because it is much better to talk about it calmly over the map than in panic somewhere down in the Rapa valley. Through the whole period of my walking in Lapland I have not seen a bear even once. Each time I have seen its fresh tracks, it was the bear that heard me first and walked away before I even had the chance to see it. I would like you to know what you can really expect — without exaggerated fear, but also without playing it down.
How many bears really live in Sarek
In all of Sweden several thousand brown bears live at the moment. It sounds like a lot, but the distribution of these animals is very uneven. The largest numbers stay in the central part of the country — Dalarna, Gävleborg and Jämtland. In the north, in the whole of Norrbotten, the region in which Sarek lies, the talk is rather of several hundred individuals scattered across an area the size of half of Poland.
In Sarek National Park itself the population density is one of the lowest in the country. The high alpine zones are not very attractive to the bear — a short growing season, few berries, few insects. The animals stay in the valleys with birch forest: Rapadalen, Tarradalen, the lower parts of Kukkesvagge. If you walk above the tree line, the probability of an encounter is really negligible. The lower down and the denser the birch wood, the more carefully you have to walk.
When an encounter becomes risky
The statistics are quite unambiguous on this question. Over the last century in the whole of Sweden several dozen serious bear attacks on humans have been recorded, and the fatal ones you can count on the fingers of one hand. The vast majority of these concerned hunters who were tracking a wounded animal with dogs — that is, a situation in which a tourist will basically never find themselves. Among trekkers visiting Sarek not a single fatal attack has been recorded so far.
The brown bear does not treat a human as prey. It attacks only defensively, in a few rather specific situations.
- A female with cubs — from late spring to early autumn; she takes every approach as a threat to her young.
- Being surprised at close range — most often in dense birch wood, when the wind is blowing in our face or we are walking along a noisy stream that muffles all sounds. The animal simply does not have time to hear and smell us.
- A bear at a carcass or fresh kill — it defends its food very aggressively.
- A bear drawn into a camp — by food scraps, opened cans, dirty mess tins left out for the night.
The practical conclusion is fairly simple: you have to make noise when walking through the forest, especially where visibility drops to a few dozen metres. Talking in the group, a shout every few minutes, a clap at a bend in the trail — that is all that is needed for the animal to get off your way before you even meet.
How to behave during an encounter
If you see a bear from a great distance, somewhere roughly above a hundred metres, in most cases it has been seeing you for a long time already and is simply going about its own business. Calmly change your direction of march, go around it in a wide arc, ideally in such a way that it is downwind and can smell you, and walk on.
If the encounter is close — a few dozen metres or less — a few simple rules apply.
- Stand calmly. Do not run. Running triggers in a bear the chase reflex, and over a short distance it can reach a speed considerably greater than any human in the world.
- Talk to it. In a calm, rather low voice: „hey, I’m walking on, I’m walking on”. The point is for it to clearly identify you as a human, and not as some kind of puzzling silhouette.
- Do not look defiantly into its eyes. Keep it in your field of view, but avoid a long, hard stare.
- Give it a way out. Back off slowly, at an angle, never with your back to the thicket.
- Do not approach for a photograph. Every metre in its direction increases the risk of a defensive reaction.
In camp iron hygiene applies. We cook and eat at a distance from the tents, at a safe distance, we pack food into smell-proof bags, and we carry the rubbish with us to the nearest settlement.
Myths that circulate among trekkers
A few stories have grown around bears that are worth refuting before you set off into the field.
- „Play dead, it will go away.” This advice concerns the grizzly bear in North America and only the situation of a physical attack. With the European brown bear it is far more effective to stand still and talk to it.
- „Climb a tree.” A brown bear gets up a birch faster than you can imagine. Younger individuals do it essentially without effort.
- „It attacks for no reason.” Practically never. Every documented attack had a concrete trigger: cubs, surprise, food or an earlier wound.
- „Sarek is full of them.” Sarek is one of the places with the lowest bear population density in the whole of Sweden. An encounter is possible, but rare.
Walk through Sarek with respect, not with fear. The bear is part of this landscape just like the reindeer and the golden eagle — and, like them, it prefers to keep you at a distance. Your job is to let it know that you are there and to let it disappear first. In the vast majority of cases that is exactly how it ends.
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