War refugee bears roam across the Ukrainian-Hungarian green border

Attila Gyújtó, president of Ravasz Róka Landowners’ Hunting Association, told Napi.hu that there are several theories as to why bears appeared in Hungary. The most likely migration to the west due to the events in Ukraine, and the fact that their living space is getting smaller in Transylvania and the Highlands, because there are more and more of them, can also play a role.

They can also feel safer in Hungary because it is supported by the European Union and the Hungarian state afforestation program would have serious successesk, and in the forests of the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg they find better and better hiding places.

The afforestation program is successful

Before the First World War, Hungary’s forests occupied 7.3 million hectares, 26 percent of the country’s area at the time, but after Trianon, the forest area decreased by 85 percent, to one million hectares, and accounted for barely 12 percent of the country’s remaining area.

According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture, in the previous EU support cycle, the applicants could spend nearly HUF 128 billion on afforestation and almost HUF 2 billion on planting industrial trees. From this amount, Hungarian forests were increased with around 23.5 thousand hectares of timber.

Thanks to the Settlement Afforestation Program of the Ministry of Agriculture, i.e. in the three phases of the country’s largest afforestation program, 1,800 settlements with less than ten thousand inhabitants have requested 46,000 trees to be planted.

22 percent of Hungary’s territory is covered by forests, which puts it ahead of many EU member states in terms of ratios. Since the system change, 200,000 hectares of new forests have been established in our country.

According to Attila Gyújtó, the program certainly plays a role in that the deer population is explodingwhich is essentially good news.

Wildlife management has nothing to do in the matter

The wildlife industry has nothing to do with highly protected species, including the brown bear and its individuals, the spokesperson of the National Hungarian Hunting Chamber told Napi.hu.

Attila Földvári pointed out: LIII of 1996 on the protection of nature. pursuant to Section 43 (1) of the Act “It is forbidden to disturb, damage, torture, destroy, endanger reproduction and other life activities of protected animal species, destroy or damage their living, living, feeding, breeding, resting or hiding places.”

The resolution of potentially conflicting situations and problems arising from the presence of large carnivores is the responsibility of the official state nature conservationwhich naturally knows about the presence of animals in the area in question.

At the same time, it is worth knowing that bears do not seek the company of humans, and we have not known of a bear attack in our country since the beginning of time.

Constant attention

According to Attila Földvári, wildlife management, like nature management, is a part of nature conservation, and the sport and professional hunters who operate the sector can play an important role in similar situations.

The reason for this is that they spend perhaps more time in the natural area than representatives of any other profession, and they certainly know the area and its fauna better than anyone else.

Large carnivores that have appeared in the area of ​​the Sly Fox are caught by the officials of the hunting company – without disturbing the individuals, of course – they are constantly watching, trying to follow their movements with the help of wildlife cameras or based on the tracks.

If their behavior justifies it, they will of course notify those involved, be it the authority, municipality or the population.