Coexistence Is Possible
It was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever witnessed: three graceful lynxes playing like puppies right in front of us, while a little further away two white Arctic wolves paced with quiet majesty along the fence of the Wolf Sanctuary. Here, twelve wolves share their home with eight jackals, five roe deer, five lynxes, one red deer, and thirty Greek sheepdogs, a breed that Arcturos raises and provides to livestock farmers. These dogs are essentially the bridge between humans and wildlife, guarding herds and deterring bears and wolves.
Yet sightings of wild animals within villages are becoming increasingly common, triggering concern. “I often hear older locals saying that bears were plentiful in the past too, but they never came into the villages,” notes Karamanlidis. “But back then there were no highways like the Egnatia Odos, no uncontrolled placement of wind farms or road construction, and far fewer wildfires disrupting the ecosystem. The mountains are no longer theirs alone; they’re being squeezed, so they inevitably move into inhabited areas.” He adds: “These pressures are among the greatest threats they face. Greece has made remarkable progress in protecting both species, but their future is far from secure. There were always bears and wolves here, yet we still drove them to the brink of extinction once – it could happen again.”
Across the Pindus, many villages have been abandoned, becoming part of the forest and offering wildlife little indication that humans once lived there. Lambros Krampokoukis spent weeks visiting nearby fields daily to drive away Martha, a young female bear recently released back into the wild who was searching for easy food amidst the crops. She quickly learned and retreated into the mountains. “You can’t leave garbage outside and expect a wolf to choose to hunt instead, nor can you leave fruit hanging in your courtyard trees and assume a bear won’t come looking,” he explains. Even electric fencing requires proper installation: most people place the lowest wire too high, allowing bears to dig beneath it; others fail to clear surrounding vegetation, which causes grounding when branches touch the wire.
Lethal control or forced removal, researchers insist, is not the answer. Coexistence is possible – if we choose it. “In Greece, the official response mechanism is unfortunately ineffective. In most incidents, it ends up being Arcturos and Callisto’s rapid-response teams who intervene,” says Stefanou. He and Mostakis then tell of countless bear encounters over the years, none of which ever put them in real danger. In the Florina region, Arcturos and the Municipality of Amyntaio have just published a Coexistence Guide for residents.
Krampokoukis dreams of a model like Canada’s. “There, even though bears are strictly protected, if one enters a garden the forestry authority is legally allowed to euthanize it. And yet people rarely call them – they don’t want the bear killed, so they rely on deterrents instead. Could we ever reach that point in Greece too?”
