‘Around 150 years ago, there were 4,000–5,000 brown bears in Scandinavia, roughly 3,000 of them in Norway. Bears were ruthlessly hunted in both Norway and Sweden in the early twentieth century, and almost exterminated. Today, the stronghold of bears in Norway is along the border with Sweden, Finland and Russia.’

So said the Environment Agency. They went on to admit that it wasn’t easy to count bears, as they spent much of the winter in hibernation. However, the Altposten newspaper reported that walkers were being encouraged to collect bear scat (yes, that’s bear shit to you and me, presumably found in the woods) for DNA analysis. The important thing was not to contaminate it and to freeze it as soon as possible, before sending it off to the authorities for checking. This research had revealed there to be at least 128 bears in Norway in 2015, of which 53 were females and 75 males.

So, my chances of coming face to face with a brown bear were also slim. But the burning question – was the brown bear dangerous? – had yet to be answered. It was thus useful to discover a publication written by a certain Jan-Erik Olson for the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project, handily entitled Is The Brown Bear Dangerous?

The good news was that the last reported death by bear in Norway was way back in 1906 when a 13-year-old boy surprised a bear that was in the process of munching away at a carcass. The boy didn’t quite provide dessert but he was seriously injured and succumbed to meningitis a month later in hospital. The most recent death in Scandinavia had been in Finland, in 1998, when a jogger again surprised a bear. It was suggested that the surprise might have been due to the jogger’s almost silent approach into a headwind. It could be argued that a cyclist’s approach in similar conditions might also provoke alarm in a bear. This I could understand. Whilst commuting to work in the open countryside of South Oxfordshire, I would often surprise the local deer population and as a result get a little too up close and personal with the fleeing animals.

Although the report by Mr Olson said that the Scandinavian brown bear was not dangerous, he did go on to state that many people had been ‘hurt, scratched and bitten by bears’. I suppose it depends upon your definition of danger. In fairness, I could see where he was coming from. I have fallen off my bike on many occasions over the years and hurt myself but I don’t consider cycling to be a dangerous activity.

The publication rounded off with some useful advice about encounters with bears: signal your peaceful intentions, no uncontrolled movements, don’t run and retire cautiously. I’m sure I was given similar advice at teacher training college about dealing with 15-year-old boys. If the bear stood on its hind legs, it was doing so not to scare the living daylights out of you but in order to see or smell better. If the bear roared, snorted or uttered ‘sounds reminding of murmurs or whistles’, it was trying to scare the living daylights out of you so run like hell. No, sorry, forgot… Don’t run. And you shouldn’t shoot: ‘A wounded bear is a dangerous bear!’

If you were attacked, the choice was between climbing a tree (best option) and playing dead (worst option). Although this latter strategy has been proven to be successful, bears have learnt to associate human scent with food either left as refuse or as bait placed by hunters and photographers. They smell you and think food…

Mr Olson concluded his pamphlet thus: ‘If you treat him with respect and do not threaten or hurt him, he returns his respect by withdrawing.’

Wise advice indeed and just as applicable to teaching teenagers as confronting bears in a Norwegian forest.

Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie, published by Summersdale, 2017