Identification of Ecological Connectivity for Brown Bears: Example of Malatya Province

Increasing population, industrialization anduse of agricultural land in the world results in devastation and fragmentationof natural areas, and thus the wild life is threatened. Especially bigcarnivorous animals are influenced heavily by this situation. They arevulnerable due to the need for wide ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: DOĞAN, Duygu, ŞAHİN, Şükran
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: M. Cüneyt BAĞDATLI 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ejar/issue/37295/430725
Description
Summary:Increasing population, industrialization anduse of agricultural land in the world results in devastation and fragmentationof natural areas, and thus the wild life is threatened. Especially bigcarnivorous animals are influenced heavily by this situation. They arevulnerable due to the need for wide areas for habitation, low reproductionrates, huge body size and the fact that they are perceived as threats by peoplebecause of their predatory characteristics. Therefore, these species should beconsidered as a priority in protection strategies.Connectivity is one of the tools used forpreventing the mentioned devastation created by human activities and enablingprotection of the habitats of mentioned species. An umbrella species, bigcarnivorous brown bear (Ursus arctos L) is tackledin the study which is found in the natural landscape of Malatya province. Thepurpose of the study is to identify their habitats via Geographical InformationSystems and ensure ecological connectivity among habitats. Similar studies areexamined as examples within the applied model in this context and they aretransferred to the field. The mobility among reproduction and population areasof the brown bears is provided by the to-be-established ecological networks,while they are protected from isolation and spatial losses.