The Finnish bear population is steadily increasing. The number of bears has doubled in ten years. Most of them are found in Eastern Finland where there are least people.

However, it is evident that bears have now spread to the whole country. There are more chances than ever before of meeting a bear anywhere in Finland.

At the beginning of the 1990'ies there were about 400 bears, but presently the population amounts to about 1 000 individuals. They are being counted and tracked by satellite location. "Metsästäjäin Keskusjärjestö" (the Finnish Hunters' Federation) says that the bear population in Finland is doing very well. The objective is not to have the number of bears increase any more, but rather to make the population spread all over the country.

People frequently moving in the forest should know something about bears' life, behaviour and habits. When a bear cub leaves its den with its mother in the spring it is the size of a small dog; its weight is only 4 - 5 kilos. In autumn bear cubs weigh about 20 kilos. One year old bear cubs, so called solitary cubs, weigh about 50 kilos. Fully grown male bears in Finland can be as big as 300 kilos.

The Finnish Hunters' Federation's website gives forest walkers advice and guidance how to act in case of meeting a bear. In the old days one aspect of hunting culture and folklore was that the name of that venerated animal must not be mentioned. For that reason there are several dozens of synonyms for the word "bear" in the Finnish language. Naturally, most of them have no equivalent in English, but a couple of these cover names could be translated to "forest apple" and "honeypaw".

The website http://www.riista.fi/riistafi/riistaen/ contains advice for anyone who is generally interested in hunting in Finland.