Brown bears are making a comeback in Finland.

July 14, 2003 — The number of brown bears in Finland has increased from 400 at the beginning of the 1990's to around 1,100 this year, mainly due to better wildlife management, Finnish officials said last week.

"The number of bears has increased quite quickly during the past 10 to 15 years, now we almost have three times as many of them," Jari Pigg, of the Finnish Hunters' Central Organization, said.

The increase in the brown bear population is largely due to the fact that Finnish authorities have limited their hunting quota to between only 80 and 90 bears a year, Pigg pointed out.

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Previously, brown bears were only found in the eastern parts of Finland, on the border with Russia, but they have in the past decade begun to migrate westwards to central parts of the country, due to their increased number, he told AFP.

The growing number of bears and their increased migration have also led to a rise in people's encounters with the animals — and not only in the forests.

Bear sightings have even been reported in the greater Helsinki area. Last month a young male bear, looking for a new habitat, was run over by a train in the town of Jaervenpaeae, just outside the Finnish capital.

The incident was however an exceptional one, Pigg said.