María Párraga, Fundación Oso Pardo

Brown bears in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain) have experienced a remarkable recovery and spatial expansion over the last decades. Approximately, 370 individuals and a range of 18,800 km2 have been estimated in recent years. While this represents a major conservation achievement, growing bear numbers and increased human–bear interactions raise new challenges for long-term coexistence. In this context, understanding temporal changes in perceptions around sharing the landscape with bears is critical to anticipate potential conservation conflicts. We conducted 1,873 face-to-face interviews between October 2024 and May 2025 across 155 municipalities within the current estimated bear range in the Autonomous Regions of Galicia, Asturias, Castilla y León, and Cantabria. We assessed attitudes toward bears, perceived risks, and compatibility with rural livelihoods. Current perceptions were compared with data collected in the late 2010s (n ≈ 800) using the same questions in the area. Although, nowadays, people positively value bears (average Likert score = 3.7 out of 5), compared to the 2010s, we detected a significant decrease in this valuation. Furthermore, concerns around sharing the landscape with the species has increased, and the proportion of respondents considering that bear presence is compatible with rural livelihood has significantly declined, with notable decreases >25% in some municipalities. While most respondents believe bears are unlikely to attack people, recurrent bear presence in villages and livestock depredation were identified as emerging concerns. Our results suggest an early stage of a potential erosion of the previous scenario of tolerance towards bears. Continuous monitoring of public attitudes over time will be essential to alert potential situations of conflict around bears and inform effective actions for mitigation in a scenario of population expansion.