Seventeen bears shot in first two days of hunting season

Hunting starts in Eastern Finland only in September

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By Jere Malinen
     
      At least seventeen brown bears met their maker on the first two days of the hunting season. Eleven bears were shot in Northern Karelia, along with three each in Kymi Province and in the reindeer herding areas of the north.
      In the regions of Finland that have the greatest density of bear population, the opening of the hunting season has been postponed until September. The guns will stay silent until then in Kuhmo, Nurmes, the eastern parts of Lieksa, around Joensuu, and in Eno, Ilomantsi, and Valtimo.
     
"Putting back the start of the season was done at the request of the hunters seeking permits. The argument was above all that it would make it easier to use dogs in the hunting", says Juha Kuittinen, from the Game Management District of Northern Karelia.
      In August the weather is often still so warm that the dogs tire quickly in the tough task of tracking a bear. Another factor is that the scent of the bear's trail does not hang around for very long in the dry forest.
      A number of bears were wounded and not put out of their misery at the very beginning of the hunting season last year, when the dogs sent after them were unable to track the injured animal in the heat. Some of the bears that were shot vanished into the woods and presumably died of their wounds without being found. It is hoped that the later starting-date will avoid a repetition of this.
     
Before the season began, the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute estimated that there were between 930 and 990 bears of more than a year of age in Finland.
      The sustainable cull was set at 92 animals.
      According to the regulations handed down by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, no more than 20 bears can be shot in the eastern reindeer herding areas of the country, and just six in the western reindeer hearding areas. The Northern Karelia Game Management District can allocate 38 licences, Kainuu Province eight, Kymi six, and Southern Savo three. Bear hunting is prohibited in other parts of Finland.
      Last year a total of 76 bears were killed during the season, which runs from August 20th to the end of October.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.8.2007

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE Use of food as bait prohibited

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Watching bears from a wheelchair (21.8.2007)
  DNA from fur helps in bear census (20.6.2006)

Links:
  The Brown Bear - King of the Wilds (Virtual Finland)
  Hunting in Finland
  Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute
  Game Species and Hunting Seasons

Helsingin Sanomat