Co-existence of brown bears and men in Slovenia

• Main Author: Kaczensky, Petra
• Other Authors: Schroeder, W. (Prof. Dr.), Schroeder, W. (Prof. Dr.);Baeumler, W. (Prof. Dr.)
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Technical University of Munich 2007
• Subjects: info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/570; Biowissenschaften; Biologie; activity pattern;brown bear;barriers;trapping;chemical restrain;habitat use;human dimension;mortality;Slovenia;spatial organization;questionnaire survey;Ursus arctos; Aktivitätsmuster;Braunbär;Barrieren;Fang;Fragmentation;Habitatnutzung;Human Dimension;Mortalität;Narkose;Slowenien;Raumnutzung;Umfrage;Ursus arctos; Aldrich; Fang; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/603563; https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/603563/document.pdf; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:91-diss2001013016373

Brown bears (Ursus arctos) are making a comeback into the Alps and other areas of their former distribution range. Slovenia is located at the transition between the Dinaric Mountain Range in the south and the Alps in the north. Its bear population is of high international interest, because presently it is the only source for a natural re-colonization of the Alps. In addition, life conditions of bears in Slovenia are similar to those in other present and potential bear areas in central and southern Europe. Thus, strategies developed in Slovenia will be highly relevant for bear management elsewhere. The goal of my thesis was: (1) to assess the influence of human land use on the activity pattern and habitat use of individual bears, (2) to evaluate whether the Ljubljana-Razdrto highway impedes bear movements, and to assess the importance of transportation-related mortality compared to other sources of mortality in the bear population, and (3) to examine people’s attitudes towards bears and bear management, their knowledge and personal experiences with the species. In chapter 4.1. I describe our experiences with trapping, chemical restraint and radiotagging of 25 different bears during 31 capture events in Slovenia from 1993-1998. A special focus is on safety considerations. Given adequate equipment and experience, trapping bears at bait sites with Aldrich snares is a safe, highly selective and effective method to capture brown bears on forested range. In chapter 4.2. I present data on the activity patterns of 16 different bears monitored in Slovenia and Croatia from 1982-1998. Logistic regression analysis, bivariate comparison of diurnal and nocturnal activity levels and cluster analysis showed that age class and time of the day were the most important variables predicting activity or inactivity. From our findings we conclude that nocturnal behavior is learnt through own negative experiences with humans, giving space for much individual variation. In chapter 4.3. I describe habitat use of 17 different bears ...