The brown bear is one of the most distributed species of the bear. Most of the bears are in the Northern parts of Europe and Russia, but there are also some further south, for example in the Middle East. The largest population of the brown bear is in Russia, with a total of 120 000. The second greatest population is in the US with 32 500 brown bears. After that comes Europe with 14 000 and 3 000 of them live in Sweden. Although there are a lot of bears around and yearly sightings in summertime, the chance is almost zero to see one in wintertime, because the brown bear is hibernating all winter. During the autumn, Brown Bears fatten up on raspberries, crowberries, cloudberries and blueberries which carpet the Swedish forest floor in preparation for hibernation. A good year for berries is also a good year for bears! Once they have built up sufficient fat reserves to see them through the long cold winter ahead, they then collect moss and twigs to make their hibernation den, which may be in an empty anthill or perhaps a spot at the foot of a large tree.