The brown bear is among the most targeted species for ecotourism in North America and Europe. As bear viewing often occurs in sensitive places where bears congregate for mating, rearing young and/or feeding, it is important to evaluate potential positive and negative effects of different viewing practices.

Monitoring long-term trends in population size is important for species' conservation assessments. However, it may be unfeasible for rare species, for which past records are typically sparse. In this study, the potential of birding trip reports as an underappreciated source of biological information to monitor rare species was investigated.