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Finland
Animals
Bears
Wolves
Wildlife
Are There Any Dangerous Wild Animals in Finland?
7 min readMar 14, 2022
Yes! And it’s the largest and smallest of these which are most likely to harm you.
Press enter or click to view image in full size![Colour head and shoulders shot of a brown bear (Ursus arctos). The bear is looking straight at the photographer. Beige and white background is blurred.]()
//CONTENT WARNING: DESCRIPTION OF ANIMAL ATTACK //
I recently published the story Five Fascinating Facts about Finland. At the end of that story, I invited people to ask me anything (AMA) about Finland.
One of the questions was “Are there any dangerous wild animals in Finland”
Oh yes. We have:
- brown bears, Ursus arctos arctos (number: over 2000, up from c. 1500 in 2010)
- grey wolves, canis lupus (216–246, up from 150–160 in 2010)
- lynx, lynx lynx (c.2000)
- wolverines, gulo gulo (up to 400)
- European adders, vipera berus (unknown number)
No polar bears though!
Bears, wolves, lynx and wolverines are all protected species in Finland under EU law. They cannot be hunted except under strict licensing and quota rules.
