Few animals have captured the imagination like brown bears. They can stand on two legs, have eyes in the front of their heads, walk on the soles of their feet, pick things up with their 'fingers', eat what we eat and nurse their young as we do. The Carpathians are home to about 8,000 brown bears in Slovakia, Poland, the Ukraine and Romania, the second largest population in Europe. Bears are considered of high priority in conservation. Given their dependence on large natural areas, they are important management indicators for a number of other wildlife species.