The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia
International audience From a conservation point of view, Macedonia’s brown bear (Ursus arctos) population appears to be a key link in the distribution of one of Europe’s largest brown bear populations, the Dinaric-Pindos population. The lack of information concerning the bear population in the Repu...
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Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-04364576 https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.86990 |
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ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:hal-04364576v1 2024-01-28T10:09:39+01:00 The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia Lescureux, Nicolas Linnell, Johnd.C. Mustafa, Sabit Melovski, Dime Stojanov, Aleksandar Ivanov, Gjorge Avukatov, Vasko Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) Macedonian Ecological Society 2011 https://hal.science/hal-04364576 https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.86990 en eng HAL CCSD Medknow Publications info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.4103/0972-4923.86990 hal-04364576 https://hal.science/hal-04364576 doi:10.4103/0972-4923.86990 ISSN: 0972-4923 Conservation and Society https://hal.science/hal-04364576 Conservation and Society, 2011, 9 (3), pp.189. ⟨10.4103/0972-4923.86990⟩ human-bear relationships Macedonia brown bear Ursus arctos conservation local knowledge perceptions [SHS.ANTHRO-SE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Social Anthropology and ethnology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environment and Society info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2011 ftccsdartic https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.86990 2023-12-30T23:22:58Z International audience From a conservation point of view, Macedonia’s brown bear (Ursus arctos) population appears to be a key link in the distribution of one of Europe’s largest brown bear populations, the Dinaric-Pindos population. The lack of information concerning the bear population in the Republic of Macedonia and bear acceptance by local people inspired us to explore local knowledge and perceptions concerning bears that could be relevant for their conservation. Accordingly, we adopted a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews to determine how the specific behaviour and ecology of bears can influence, through interactions, local peoples’ knowledge and perceptions. Our results show that due to numerous interactions, the informants’ knowledge appeared to be detailed and consistent, both internally and with existing scientific literature about bears. Bear specific behaviour allows them to be located, individualised and thus appropriated by villagers, and also to be identified as an alter-ego. For the villagers, the occasional harmfulness of a bear is not the result of a general characteristic of bears in general, but of some individual bear’s behaviour. Finally, bears enjoy a relatively good image as long as local people can react against individuals that cause damage. However, direct or indirect poaching of bears is still a main concern for the Macedonian brown bear’s conservation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Conservation and Society 9 3 189 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) |
op_collection_id |
ftccsdartic |
language |
English |
topic |
human-bear relationships Macedonia brown bear Ursus arctos conservation local knowledge perceptions [SHS.ANTHRO-SE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Social Anthropology and ethnology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environment and Society |
spellingShingle |
human-bear relationships Macedonia brown bear Ursus arctos conservation local knowledge perceptions [SHS.ANTHRO-SE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Social Anthropology and ethnology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environment and Society Lescureux, Nicolas Linnell, Johnd.C. Mustafa, Sabit Melovski, Dime Stojanov, Aleksandar Ivanov, Gjorge Avukatov, Vasko The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia |
topic_facet |
human-bear relationships Macedonia brown bear Ursus arctos conservation local knowledge perceptions [SHS.ANTHRO-SE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Social Anthropology and ethnology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environment and Society |
description |
International audience From a conservation point of view, Macedonia’s brown bear (Ursus arctos) population appears to be a key link in the distribution of one of Europe’s largest brown bear populations, the Dinaric-Pindos population. The lack of information concerning the bear population in the Republic of Macedonia and bear acceptance by local people inspired us to explore local knowledge and perceptions concerning bears that could be relevant for their conservation. Accordingly, we adopted a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews to determine how the specific behaviour and ecology of bears can influence, through interactions, local peoples’ knowledge and perceptions. Our results show that due to numerous interactions, the informants’ knowledge appeared to be detailed and consistent, both internally and with existing scientific literature about bears. Bear specific behaviour allows them to be located, individualised and thus appropriated by villagers, and also to be identified as an alter-ego. For the villagers, the occasional harmfulness of a bear is not the result of a general characteristic of bears in general, but of some individual bear’s behaviour. Finally, bears enjoy a relatively good image as long as local people can react against individuals that cause damage. However, direct or indirect poaching of bears is still a main concern for the Macedonian brown bear’s conservation. |
author2 |
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) Macedonian Ecological Society |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lescureux, Nicolas Linnell, Johnd.C. Mustafa, Sabit Melovski, Dime Stojanov, Aleksandar Ivanov, Gjorge Avukatov, Vasko |
author_facet |
Lescureux, Nicolas Linnell, Johnd.C. Mustafa, Sabit Melovski, Dime Stojanov, Aleksandar Ivanov, Gjorge Avukatov, Vasko |
author_sort |
Lescureux, Nicolas |
title |
The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia |
title_short |
The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia |
title_full |
The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia |
title_fullStr |
The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia |
title_full_unstemmed |
The king of the forest: Local knowledge about European brown bears (Ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary Western Macedonia |
title_sort |
king of the forest: local knowledge about european brown bears (ursus arctos) and implications for their conservation in contemporary western macedonia |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-04364576 https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.86990 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
ISSN: 0972-4923 Conservation and Society https://hal.science/hal-04364576 Conservation and Society, 2011, 9 (3), pp.189. ⟨10.4103/0972-4923.86990⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.4103/0972-4923.86990 hal-04364576 https://hal.science/hal-04364576 doi:10.4103/0972-4923.86990 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.86990 |
container_title |
Conservation and Society |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
189 |
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1789339769480675328 |