In the Land of the Bears

With a population of nearly 8000, Romania is home to half of Europe's bears. Bears have been present, mainly in the mountainous regions, for thousands of years, sustained by regulations on hunting. Between Christmas and the New Year, in several villages in the north-east of Romania, villagers dance to the rhythm of the drums and flutes, dressed in bear hides, some weighing up to 40 kg. The bear has long been considered a sacred animal with healing powers. The Dance of the Bears, an ancestral folk tradition, symbolises the death and rebirth of the year. Over the last fifteen years bears have increasingly been fed by humans. Once this becomes a habit, the bears associate humans with food. Zoologists, NGOs and hunters are not able to agree upon who is responsable for bears in Romania. In the meantime, in the absence of concrete authoritative measures, accidents are frequent, and both humans and bears suffer.