Hi Guy's

I'm doing a lot of camping around Norway, Sweden and finland.

I have read and generally understand that Bears live around these areas. . .

Are they a problem for free campers? if so how is the best way to stay alive? ha

Tommy

heheh
I immediately thought of these


Look i dont know if it is true about bears in that area.. but the basic rules are:
hang all food (or anything that smells like food) off a rope off in a tree about 5-10m away from your tent and at least 4m off the ground (the higher the better) and not too close to the trunk. Most bear will try to open your tent if you have any of the above Swedish bears..
. If you come across a bear do not run, look down.. try to look small and back away slowly and calmly... you are not normally on the menu, you are normally considered a threat and a competitor for food (e.g. fellow predator) if you look submissive and leave they will "not bother" to come after you..
do not make eye contact (this is considered aggressive)
and #1 rule never get in between a mum and her cub.

but remember a wild animal is just that.. sometimes they have not read the rules and will do something unexpected. you are in their world respect it and them.

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2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Don't worry we have them but they are shy and if you are able to see one you are very lucky guy.
I have had bears as a neighbors already years and less than 50 meters away of my house but never able to seen them. We have a dog that smell them and sometimes want to go after them but bears have avoided meeting us.

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...You know it's a bit windy when you get passed by your own dust...

Swedish bears can usually very welcoming...

are said to be very friendly

with offers of free tyres...

photos of you and your bike...

...that if you see this.... you'll probably save a lot on fuel and traveling expenses!!

When I was in Sweden last I was told that a pair of Australian Drop Bears had escaped from a private zoo and had then set about re producing in large numbers and had even been seen in Norway. The simple rules for Drop Bears is never put your tent under a tree and always look up and check any tree that you maybe standing under for a Drop Bear colony.

"Hello and welcome to my digestive system!"

In Finland we have only 1660–1780 bears acc. last count 2010.

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...You know it's a bit windy when you get passed by your own dust...

There are 4 kind of predator in Sweden (if you dont Count humans)



-Bears, brownbear. Somewhere around 2500-3000 individuals. They weigh around 100-350 kg and are concentrated in northern Sweden. They are quite shy and avoids humans.
In the period from 1978-2008 there were 27 cases where bears attacking humans, 22 of them where hunters that were attacked during a hunt. In almost all of the cases there were a dog involved. Aka. the bear attacked the dog. In most of the cases there were also cubs involved.
So the chance of you encountering a bear in Sweden are quite slim. I've never seen one and I hiked around quite a lot.


-Wolves. You see one, you are really lucky. I heard wolves once during my trecks. 200 individuals and they are spread around the northern parts of the country. Last known case of a wild wolf killing a human in Sweden was in the year 1815. So no worries there.


-Wolverines. Same thing here, you see one then you are really lucky. 650 individual and mostly concentrated in the deepest northern areas.
No danger to humans, since you are not going to see one.


-Lynx. You will see about 50 wolverines before you see a lynx. aka. you wont see it..
Dangerous to humans..No

The biggest thing to worry about when freecamping are the god d*mn mosquitoes. Are they dangerous? No, they are irritating....and everywhere...

Like P3i_Swe told we have the same things in Fnland.

But some times shit hits the Fan

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...You know it's a bit windy when you get passed by your own dust...

In Alaska where they have same animals it is other way round - lots more Lynx than Wolverines. I even got to see a Lynx.

You lucky bastard
Closest I got was in a zoo

What most people don't realize is that Sweden is quite a big country, compared to other European country's.

Sweden 449 964 km²
Germany 357 050 km²
Finland 338 145 km²
UK 244 820 km²

So the odds of encountering dangerous wildlife is quite small.
But still, better safe then sorry. So be careful.