Distribution and abundance
In the Czech Republic the brown bear is present only in the Carpathians: in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids, the Silesian Beskids, the Vsetínské Vrchy mountain range and in the White Carpathians. Single cases of bear occurrence are reported from foothills and lowlands adjacent to these areas. The bear population size in the Beskids is not constant. It is highly probable that bears neither winter nor reproduce there (Bojda et al., 2014).
In the Czech Republic the brown bear was nearly exterminated in XVII century. It survived much longer in the Beskids in eastern part of the country, along the Polish-Slovak border. Since the beginning of the 1970’ a slow return of bears to this lands has been observed. The size of the population living in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids is estimated at 1-3 individuals only (Kaczensky et al. 2013).