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The dispersal of a brown bear (Ursus arctos) population in northern Europe was studied from 1968 to 1982 with the help of the Finnish Border Patrol Establishment and local hunters. Bears immigrated to Finland in the 1970s and early 1980s from the saturated Soviet Karelian population. Continued immigration from Soviet Karelia into Finnish Northern Karelia, Kainuu, and Koillismaa caused the bears to move through the inland areas of Finland, some crossing the entire country from east to west. Bears also appeared in the southeastern frontier area of Finland, and some immigration was recorded from the Kola Peninsula into eastern Finnish Lapland. From 1969 to 1981, 682 more bears immigrated to Finland, mainly from South Karelia, than emigrated. During this period at least 456 bears were killed in Finland; the number of bears in Finland thus increased by about 200 (to 300-350). The bears killed in eastern Finland were predominantly males, 64.1% in 1960-81, and the proportion of cubs killed was 17.8%. It is assumed that intraspecific aggressiveness (leading especially to subadult dispersal) results in emigration, the males being more mobile than the females.