Hunter's Path XVI

Wild Eurasian brown bear are a standard occupational hazard if you’re an
indigenous Sámi reindeer herder in Sweden. “This is not Disney, bear are dangerous,”
explained fifth-generation herder Mattias Sparrock via an interpreter
as he welcomed us to the remote, unfenced Jämtland hunting camp, adding: “If
they’re hungry they will kill you and bury you. Then, when they want to eat
you they will dig you up.”
Top: Jämtland is only accessible via a
45-minute helicopter transfer.
Bottom: The pilot explains to Simon
where he would be landing.
Thankfully, bear attacks on humans are
relatively rare in Sweden. There have
been just two fatalities in the past forty
years. Most recently, in 2014, an eightyyear-old
man was attacked by a protective
sow nursing three cubs while he was fishing
by a lake in Homnabo. Despite some serious
bite wounds, he lived to tell the tale. A
protected species, bear can only be hunted
with a license. Around 230 permits are
granted each year to help safeguard livestock
and to keep the population healthy.
Hunting apex predators is often controversial
and emotive, so my wife Selena and
I were especially interested to learn more
about the management of this iconic species
in one of its native home ranges.
Typically, there are two ways of hunting
a free-ranging, wild bruin: driven with dogs
or stalking on foot. We opted for the latter.
Organised by Lars Andersson and Markus
Johansson of the renowned Swedish outfitter
Exclusive Adventure, the week-long
expedition required intense physical training
beforehand, as we’d be hiking for twelve
hours each day. The shooting distance
could be anything out to three hundred
metres, so adequate range time was also
a prerequisite. This hunt was the ultimate
test of endurance, fitness and field craft. It
doesn’t get much more ‘fair chase’ than that.
Camp was a simple wooden cabin
with communal bunk beds. There was no
running water, electricity or phone signal.
Lars reassured me however that the thin
walls would prevent us from being eaten in
the night. Accessed via a spectacular forty-five-minute
helicopter flight, the camp
felt incredibly isolated from civilization.
Being completely cut-off from the twenty-first
century felt pleasingly cathartic. In
a world where we are increasingly dictated
to by emails, mobile phones and laptops, it
was great to reignite my primeval senses,
live simply and hunt intensively from dawn
until dusk. This kind of backcountry hunting
should be available on prescription.
Jämtland is in the heart of the Scandinavian
Peninsula and is one of Sweden’s
twenty-five counties. It has a population
of just 120,000 people and approximately
a thousand brown bear. The introduction
of bounties in 1647, and the subsequent
intensive hunting, reduced the bear population
from 4,000-5,000 in the 1850s to a
woeful 130 animals in 1927. They then received
official protection in 1927. According
to the International Union for Conservation
of Nature’s Red List of Threatened
Species, the brown bear is now in the clear.
Our first evening was spent acclimatizing
to the modest surroundings of the
cabin, crouched around the log burner by
candlelight, chewing reindeer biltong and
drinking cans of strong Fagerhult lager.
According to Mattias, in 2007 an emaciated
bear killed a man and his dog in a village
just five kilometres from the hut. With
no access to the internet to verify his story,
it sent a chill down my spine. “If the bear
population is not kept in check and their
numbers exceed the natural carrying capacity
of the land, they then start to encroach
on villages which leads to conflict with humans,”
he explained. Hunting a dangerous
carnivore requires a completely different
mindset. I’m used to hunting prey species
like deer, sheep, goats and pheasants. Being
part of my quarry’s food chain took some
getting used to. “Watch your back, bruins
don’t have great vision but they do have
a keen sense of smell!” chortled Markus,
playfully pointing at my hiking boots and
pinching his nose.
When hunting bear it is an extremely
good idea to have a native tribesman as
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