Slovak town declares state of emergency after fatal weekend bear attack

Slovakia's Liptovský Mikuláš has declared a state of emergency today following a bear attack on Saturday that resulted in the death of a 55-year-old mushroom picker.

Rudolf Huliak, deputy of the ruling Slovak National Party (SNS) and chairman of the parliament’s agriculture and environment committee, proposed culling approximately 30 bears that regularly roam near human dwellings, according to the TASR agency.

In response to the attack, authorities captured two bears over the weekend, one of which was found near the site of the incident.

The attack occurred around noon when the victim was foraging for mushrooms in the forest near the village of Hybe. Tragically, he succumbed to his severe injuries.

This incident marks the second fatal bear attack in Slovakia's history, with the first occurring in 2021 in the same area​.

Tensions between the need for public safety and the preservation of wildlife in Slovakia have been ongoing as officials seek to balance these competing interests in the face of rising bear populations​.

In the same area in March of 2024, a 31-year-old woman from Belarus died in Slovakia after being chased by a bear in the Low Tatras mountain range. She was walking with a male companion when they encountered the bear and ran in opposite directions. Rescue teams later found her body in a ravine, where she likely fell while fleeing.

According to the BBC, better environmental protection in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of communism in 1989 has allowed bears to return to their natural habitats in the Carpathian mountain range, extending from Romania through western Ukraine to Slovakia and Poland.

Researchers, however, assert that Slovakia’s bear population remains stable at around 1,275, calling into question the notion of a bear population explosion.