Mortality Causes in Free-Ranging Eurasian Brown Bears (Ursus arctos arctos) in Spain 1998–2018

• Published in: Animals
• Main Authors: Balseiro Morales, Ana María, Royo, Luis J., Gayo, Elena, Balsera, Ramón, Alarcia, Olga, García Marín, Juan Francisco
• Other Authors: Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2020
• Subjects: Sanidad animal; Brown bear; Ursus arctos arctos; Pathology; Cause of death; Infectious diseases; Traumas; 3109 Ciencias Veterinarias; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10612/19163; https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/9/1538; https://doi.org/10.3390/ANI10091538

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). [EN] This work summarizes the mortality cases of twenty-five free-ranging Eurasian wild brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos) from the Cantabrian mountain range submitted for necropsy in Asturias and Castilla y León (northwestern Spain) from 1998 to 2018. Mortality cases were classified both caused by (i) "non-human intervention" or "human intervention” causes and based on (ii) "non-infectious" or "infectious" etiology. In four cases (16%) it was not possible to determine the cause of death due to the inadequate preservation of collected specimens or insufficient tissue availability. Based on "non-human intervention" or "human intervention” causes, fourteen of the 21 (66.7%) brown bears died as a consequence of "non-human intervention" due to traumatic lesions (fights, unknown traumas or infanticide), infectious canine hepatitis, neoplasia or mushroom poisoning. In contrast, seven (33.3%) brown bears died by “human intervention” due to illegal hunting (shooting or snare), handling (during transit in an attempt to reintroduce a bear back into the wild) or strychnine poisoning. Based on "non-infectious" or "infectious" etiology, twelve of the 21 (57.1%) brown bears died due to "non-infectious” causes, namely traumatic lesions such as shooting, snare, fighting or infanticide, handling, strychnine poisoning, mushroom poisoning or neoplasia. The remaining nine (42.9%) animals died due to “infectious” diseases which included gangrenous myositis, infectious canine hepatitis or septicemia. In six of those cases traumatic lesions caused by non-human or human activities were complicated with bacterial infection (clostridiosis and septicemia) which finally caused the death of those animals. Additionally, exertional myopathy was observed in the handled animal and in one bear found in a ...