Three brown bears were found dead in Western Macedonia in June, and the deaths have sharpened a showdown that was already building across northern Greece. One was Circe, a bear rescued and nurtured for a year by Arcturos before apparently eating poisoned bait. Another was a young female that had only recently been rewilded. Two of the three were shot.
That is happening while Greece’s bear count keeps climbing. Greek authorities said a 2025 survey found 900 bears in the mountainous region, almost twice the number in the previous survey six years earlier, a change tied to hunting bans and other conservation efforts. The rise has been most visible in Kastoria and Grevena, where residents, farmers, livestock breeders and beekeepers are facing more frequent encounters with bears in yards, roads and public spaces.
For Dimitris Despas, the problem is no longer abstract. The 65-year-old said a bear had been in his garden just weeks before his interview with AFP, and that bears had surrounded his village, come into house yards, damaged property and eaten fruit off trees. He said a bear was roaming the village central square at dusk a few days earlier and that another animal lightly injured a fellow villager. He said he is now afraid to leave his home.
Forestry services in Kastoria prefecture received more than 300 complaints about bears in residential areas between 2025 and last month, and more than 2,000 people in the Kastoria area joined the Facebook group Not living with bears. The complaints reflect a widening dispute over what should happen when protected wildlife moves into places where people live. Dimitris Mitsopoulos said bears had been photographed outside schools while children were inside, and Lefteris Zioutis said there were more than 10 bears moving around Grevena and frequently entering urban areas. He said he had photographed more than 100 different bears since early 2025.
Wildlife groups say the answer is not to treat the bears as if they were pets or invaders, but to reduce the chances of contact in the first place. Iason Bantios said crop and livestock damage is a longstanding issue and that proper information, along with preventive and deterrent measures, can drastically reduce bears approaching inhabited areas. The June deaths, though, raise a harder question: whether those measures will be enough when bears are being found shot, poisoned or wandering into central squares, and whether Greek authorities will respond to the killings as isolated crimes or as a sign that the conflict has moved into a more dangerous phase.
