The human-bear relations are very different between Sweden and Norway. In Sweden, bears cause very little damage to domestic livestock, which are kept within fences or taken in at night. Bears do kill a considerable number of calves of domestic reindeer during their first month of life, however. In Norway, bears kill many sheep, which graze unguarded in forests and alpine areas. Bears are not common in reindeer calving areas in Norway. Bears prey on the calves of moose in both countries.

Bears are not very aggressive and attempt to avoid people. Nevertheless, someone is hurt (or rarely killed) by bears almost every year. Most of the people injured by bears are hunters who have surprised a bear and shot it at close range. An ongoing hunter-education effort seems to be working, as the number of bear-injured people is declining.