Autumn food habits of the brown bear Ursus arctos in the Golestan National Park : A pilot study in Iran

• Published in: Mammalia
• Main Authors: Soofi, Mahmood, Qashqaei, Ali, Aryal, Achyut, Coogan, Sean
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2018
• Subjects: 0608 Zoology; Brown bear; Conflict; Diet; Digestible dry matter; Scat; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/165487; https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2016-0051

Food consumed by brown bears in the Golestan National Park in Iran was analyzed during autumn 2011. We identified 22 food items in 61 scats, with the most important food items being hawthorn fruit, cherry plum fruit and chestnut-leaved oak hard mast, based on importance value (IV) estimates of 26.4%, 18.1% and 12.9%, respectively. The overall bear diet (percent digestible dry matter) was composed of 77.9% soft mast (i.e. fruit), 21.3% hard mast and small proportions of other vegetation (0.3%) or animal matter (0.4%). One anthropogenic food was identified (vine grape) and was of minor importance (IV=0.2%).