For the first time in decades, a brown bear has given birth to cubs in Lithuania. Wildlife cameras captured the mother and cubs in a forest in the northwest part of the country, marking the first confirmed reproduction of the species on Lithuanian soil in generations.
Laimonas Daukša, director of the Lithuanian Hunters and Fishermen’s Association, told local news outlet Made in Vilnius that because of this birth, bears living in Lithuania will now be added to the country’s Red Book of protected species. “As far as I know, according to the current procedure, only breeding species can be included in it, so we have the first bear cub that has opened a new page in this book,” Daukša said.
The development reverses a long-standing official status. The IUCN Red List still classifies the brown bear as “Extinct” in Lithuania, a designation based on the loss of the country’s resident population decades ago due to overhunting and habitat loss. The birth of a cub suggests that status may no longer reflect reality.
Trail Cameras Captured an Adult Bear Weeks Earlier
The cub sighting came close on the heels of another bear event. In April 2025, a wildlife photographer named Marek Kislovskij checked one of his trail cameras in the Šalčininkai district, near the border with Belarus. He found footage of a full-grown brown bear walking through the forest.
The bear Šalčininkai district. Image credit: M. Kislovskij/Screenshot
“When I came to check the camera, I couldn’t believe what I saw at first,” Kislovskij told LRT.lt. “I was really surprised to have captured such a shot and, of course, I was thrilled. At the same time, it was a bit unsettling to realize that a bear had recently been walking around in that same area.”
Until that moment, he said, he had never heard of any bear sightings or even tracks in the Šalčininkai district. The camera was placed near Gerviškės, close to the Belarusian border, on March 31.
The Source of the Returning Bears Is Estonia
The bears now appearing in Lithuania are not coming from nowhere. According to Harri Valdmann, an associate professor of zoology at the University of Tartu, Estonia’s bear population has climbed to roughly 1,000 animals, the highest level in more than a century.
“These habitats pulse,” Valdmann told ERR News. “When the population is strong, it spills over to less suitable areas. There are a lot of bears now, and they reach as far as Latvia, which is not the case if numbers are low.”
Latvia has not seen a re-established bear population. Its local bears were hunted to extinction by the late 1920s. Valdmann noted that while individual bears from Estonia occasionally wander into Latvia, a resident population has not taken hold because the Estonian population, while large, is not yet dense enough to sustain a permanent spillover further south.
Public Opinion in Lithuania Is Mixed
A 2012 study published in the journal Ursus surveyed nearly 3,800 residents in northwest Lithuania. The findings show that acceptance of returning bears is not guaranteed. The study is the most recent peer-reviewed assessment of Lithuanian attitudes toward the species.
The study found that 82.4% of respondents said they would fear for the safety of their families if bears inhabited local forests. Most respondents said they would not accept bears closer than 10 kilometers from their homes. On average, 60 to 70% of respondents rejected bears at that distance.
Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) is one of the most common subspecies of the brown bear, and is found in much of Eurasia. Credit: Shutterstock
Rural residents were more likely to support population control or total eradication. Urban residents generally favored an increase in bear numbers. Berry and mushroom pickers, who spend significant time in forests, were among the strongest opponents of a growing bear population. The study also found that 22.5% of respondents wanted action taken against bears even if the animals lived far from settlements.
The Global Population Remains Large
The brown bear’s return to Lithuania is a local event, not a global conservation crisis. The IUCN Red List classifies the species as “Least Concern” worldwide, with an estimated 110,000 mature individuals across North America, Europe, and Asia. The population trend is listed as stable.
The IUCN’s own assessment, last updated in 2016, notes that bears have been periodically crossing into Lithuania from Latvia and Belarus. The report describes these as wandering individuals, not enough as yet to be considered occupied range. The recent cub birth suggests that threshold may be approaching.
The official range map for the species still lists Lithuania as “Extinct.” That designation now does not match what trail cameras have recorded. The IUCN notes that small, isolated subpopulations like the one emerging in the Baltics remain vulnerable, even as the global species is secure.