Tourists endanger lives and wildlife with bear selfies on Romanian highway

Tourists driving the picturesque route through the Făgăraș Mountains in Romania often open their windows and offer food to the bears. However, that's not all. The bravest, and at the same time the most irresponsible, get out of their cars to take selfies with these dangerous animals.

The legendary Romanian Transfăgărășan Highway connects the Argeș and Sibiu counties. Encountering a bear there is common. "On the stretch of 12-19 miles, I counted 12 of them, including four cubs. Without exception, every driver stopped at each one," reads an article on snoop.ro.

As reported by Romanian media, tourists frequently get out of their cars and photograph themselves with the animals. This practice increases the risk posed by bears to humans but also harms the animals themselves.

Because they are being fed, the bears lose their instincts and stop fearing humans. Mother bears with cubs often approach cars and tourists, which can have hazardous consequences. If, for instance, the mother gets frightened and believes her cubs are in danger, she may become particularly aggressive.

The animals from the Transfăgărășan Highway are to be relocated to a reserve, but there is no certainty that the problem will disappear.

There are several reasons for the increasing interactions between humans and these animals in Romania. Bears approach human settlements because the forests are shrinking, and the food they can find is decreasing. Hungry bears leave the forests, rummage through bins, attack livestock, and sometimes even people. Taming the bears by feeding them also contributes to the problem.

After a bear recently killed a tourist in the mountains, authorities changed the regulations, increasing the number of bears to be culled. The prime minister and the minister of environment spoke about the bear population "getting out of control".

Activists and scientists, however, believe this does not solve the problem. Education and effective enforcement of the ban on feeding and approaching animals are needed. In regions where many bears live, special measures are required to make it harder for them to access infrastructure. Experts also assess that local authorities do not always fulfil their duties in responding to and removing dangerous individuals.

The authorities say that the population of brown bears in Romania is around 8,000, but activists argue that the actual number is difficult to determine.