Over three quarters of Romanians think bears need protection, important symbol for the country

A new study suggests that Romanians care about their bears, with 78 percent believing that they should be protected from hunting and only 6 percent perceiving them as a threat to humans. The study carried out by animal protection NGO the WWF and Ipsos Research shows that the bear-friendly Romanians are worried about the country's brown bear population.

Only a quarter of respondents thought that there were more than a thousand bears left in the wild in Romania, while 76 percent see Romania's “King of the Carpathians” as an iconic and irreplaceable part of the country's identity and natural heritage. According to WWF Romania, the exact number of wild bears in the country is unknown, but official estimates point to a one-third reduction in the population in the last 20 years. The study suggests that there are high levels of concern among Romanians about the state of the environment. Some 86 percent of respondents considered industrial pollution as a problem. Pollution of rivers, falling air quality and deforestation were also flagged up by the Romanians surveyed as big worries. editor@romania-insider.com photo source: sxc.hu