Pictures: The wild animals on the rise in mainland Europe
- Published
They might sound rare and exotic - but according to a study in the publication 'Science' - the numbers of wild predators like this brown bear living in Europe are either staying the same - or actually increasing! In mainland Europe (don't worry - not the UK) there are around 17,000 brown bears in the wild.
And there are around 9,000 of these - the Eurasian lynx. It was feared as more and more people live in Europe, animals like the lynx would be threatened but the study found that isn't the case.
There are thought to be around 12,000 wolves living in mainland Europe. They aren't everywhere though - the UK, Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg didn't have any large predators that the study was looking at in the wild.
The rarest it found was this - a wolverine (yes, they are real animals). There were only 1,250 of these found, and they only live in the northern bits of Scandinavia and Finland. The study pointed out that whilst none of these animals live in the wild in the UK - parts of Scotland could provide good homes for them in the future.