Spain's Cantabrian brown bears double to 370 as range expands across 6,500 square miles

Spain's Cantabrian brown bear, once reduced to a remnant population clinging to a single mountain range, now roams more than 17,000 square kilometers — roughly 6,500 square miles — across four regions of northern Spain, with its total numbers having doubled over the past two decades to around 370 individuals. Counting the separate Pyrenean population, Spain's Minister for Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen put the national figure above 400 at the recent presentation of the project LIFE Osos con Futuro.

In less than three decades, populations of brown bears have risen from fewer than 70 to over 400.— Sara Aagesen, Spain's Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge

The recovery is documented in a study published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice in 2023, which tracked bear numbers and range across three periods: 1982–1992, 1993–2002, and 2003–2012. The first two periods saw a 25% reduction in bear numbers. The third saw a 70% increase, and the bears' breeding range expanded by 30% — enough for the two previously separated Cantabrian breeding populations to overlap again after decades of isolation, divided by an 18-to-24-mile stretch of gorges with a highway running through them. Between 2013 and 2022, the geographical range expanded by a further 77%, matching the areas the study's authors had predicted.

The drivers of recovery, according to the study, were threefold: sustained government protection measures, the creation of new protected areas, and rural depopulation that reduced human pressure on bear habitat. The establishment of Somiedo Natural Park and Redes National Park added 688 square kilometers of protected land centered on the last remaining bear populations. Fines for unauthorized killing reached some $350,000, according to Good News Network.

The Cantabrian brown bear takes its name from the northern Spanish region that served as its last stronghold, but the animals now range across Asturias, León, Galicia, Palencia, and Cantabria. Bears have been locally extinct in parts of Asturias, where around 5,000 square kilometers of viable habitat is considered the most likely next area of natural expansion. An article in the scientific journal Quercus, titled 'The return of the brown bear to the Cabrera region of León and surrounding mountain ranges,' compiled 85 pieces of evidence — direct sightings, tracks, footprints, camera trap records, and damage to beehives — collected between 2012 and 2025, documenting the animals' movement into areas where they had not been seen in more than a century, according to The Local.

As Europe's largest carnivore, the brown bear anchors the food web from the top down. It scavenges carrion, helping prevent disease, and disperses plant seeds caught in its coat, supporting plant biodiversity — ecosystem services that ripple outward to benefit the wider mountain environment.

The recovery is not without friction. Livestock farmers in areas where bears are reappearing have reported losses, and many complain that compensation schemes are inadequate. According to The Local, data from the Aragonese Pyrenees recorded 33 confirmed bear attacks in 2024 — 29 in Ansó and 4 in Hecho — killing 44 sheep and two goats. Reuters recently reported on a dedicated bear patrol unit in the Palencia area established to monitor bears and manage coexistence with local communities.

How many decades have bears been in the Cordillera and there have never been any attacks? Here, for genetic reasons, bears are very accustomed to people because they live in a humanised environment. It is one thing for this to be a problem and quite another to present it as such.— Vincenzo Penteriani, Spanish Council for Scientific Research

Penteriani cautioned against narratives that create, in his words, 'the idea that sooner or later there may be a human casualty,' noting that bears in the Cantabrian region are accustomed to living in a humanized environment and that no evidence of an uptick in bear attacks on people has emerged.

The study's authors issued their own warning on a different front: existing management plans across the surrounding territories are outdated and underestimate the bear's capacity to spread and colonize new areas. They called for those plans to be updated pre-emptively, before the bears arrive, to head off human-wildlife conflict rather than react to it.

Spain's bear recovery mirrors a parallel success with the Iberian lynx. Since 2010, more than 400 Iberian lynx have been reintroduced to parts of Portugal and Spain; over 600 adult lynx are now raising cubs and ranging across more than 1,200 square miles. The species was once listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and is now classified as Vulnerable — the same status as the cheetah in Africa.

Why it matters — The Cantabrian bear recovery shows that sustained, science-led conservation policy can reverse the decline of a large carnivore within a human generation — but the bears' expanding range is now testing whether the legal and social frameworks governing coexistence can keep pace.

Sources differ on Baseline brown bear population figure before recovery: Fewer than 70 three decades ago (thelocal.es) vs Around 140 in the early 21st century (goodnewsnetwork.org)

Reported by goodnewsnetwork.org, impactful.ninja, thelocal.es