Wolves, lynxes and brown bears are among the most charismatic carnivore species in Europe, and they seem to be making a comeback after almost becoming extinct at the end of the past century. What is causing this gradual recolonization of their historical range? A multi-national team from 11 European countries, including the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) investigated if changes in land cover, human population density and protection status were responsible for the expansion of Eurasian...

Negative encounters with brown bears are rare and mainly non-fatal. This is the main finding of this study where the authors investigated more than 600 brown bear attacks on humans in 2000-2015 across the range inhabited by the species.

Most mammals rely upon scent for intraspecific communication. As most bear species have large home ranges and are non-territorial, scent deposit while walking could be an effective way to communicate with conspecifics. Here, the existence of pedal glands in brown bears and their role in chemical communication are investigated from a histological, biochemical and behavioural perspective.

In Europe every year about 12,000 sheep and goats and 2,000 beehives are claimed lost due to brown bear damage and compensated to farmers. Just a few countries account for the majority of these losses. This study highlights that these differences are related to management and land-use practices, and not to bear abundance.