Bears in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains

A few of my friends are experienced Carpathian hikers. They always make fun of me whenever I bring up the issue of possible bear encounters since they, having hiked in the Ukrainian Carpathians a lot, have never seen a bear (only one has seen bear footprints and excrements once).

Ukrainian researchers believe that there are anywhere between 200 and 300 European brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos - the same as the North American grizzly bear, or Ursus arctos horribilis, but slightly smaller) in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains at any given moment as they tend to migrate back and forth between Romania, Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia. The area of the Ukrainian Carpathians is about 24000 sq km / 9266 sq mi, which gives us the average of about one bear per 100 sq km (10 km by 10 km) or 37 sq mi (approx. 6 mi by 6 mi).

Reportedly, the highest concentration of bears is in the Gorgany Mountains (due to the extremely rocky surfaces this ridge is practically impassable on a bike off-road), but there are also reports of bear sightings in the areas I am currently considering. For example, I stumbled upon (wasn't really looking for any "bear reports" on purpose) three separate reports of bear sightings (in one instance - with a cub) in the vicinity of Mt. Tempa.

One of the approach routes to the Svydivets Ridge I have considered is the one from Ust-Chorna: either via Mt. Tempa or along the Shasa Ridge further north. I am not considering the former option anymore. The prospect of running into a bear was not the only reason to discard the route via Mt. Tempa, but it (I am not going to lie) was one of the reasons.

Bears tend to avoid people. Shouldn't we, in return, avoid them as well?

Some sources I didn't forget to bookmark:
Znakowania szlaków na Zakarpaciu ciąg dalszy (in Polish)
Бурий ведмідь (in Ukrainian)
Бурий ведмідь у Карпатах (in Ukrainian)

P.S. In the neighboring Slovakia that shares the same mountain system with Ukraine, bear population has grown dramatically in the recent years. Bear encounters have become quite frequent (and not just in the wild). See this BBC report and the video:

It is interesting that, previously, reports of bears raiding garbage containers (primarily of restaurants and hotels) and showing no fear of humans were limited to Romania. In this 2009 video from Sinaia, Romania, it is obvious that tourists had fed the bear frequently enough to develop this kind of behavior:
Now, imagine yourself in this situation, but riding a bicycle instead of being in the relative safety of a car.

P.P.S. On a totally different note (geographically), I used to believe that the Alps were completely "bear-free". It turns out that there are bears in some parts of the Alps: see this page of the Transalp 2011 report at gletschersau.de. One would hope that the tourists visiting the Alps are not as dumb as the ones in Romania.