Utilising telemetry and remote sensing technology to evaluate the effectiveness and use of the KA45 highway underpasses by brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the region of Kastoria, W. Macedonia, Greece

• Main Authors: Mertzanis, Yorgos, Psaralexi, Maria K., Athanasiadis, Ioannis, Aravidis, Elias, Examilioti, Georgina, Giannakopoulos, Alexios, Iliopoulos, Yorgos, Katsiri, Eli, Kouris, Paris, Lazarou, Yorgos, Patsinakidis, Nikolaos, Petridou, Maria, Riegler, Sussane, Riegler, Armin, Tragos, Athanasios, Tsaknakis, Ioannis, Vezynias, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IENE 2016
• Subjects: Life Science; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/utilising-telemetry-and-remote-sensing-technology-to-evaluate-the

Avoidance behaviour of otherwise suitable habitats in close proximity to roads has been recorded for brown bears across the globe. In Greece, the current 55km operational part of the newly constructed KA45 highway (attached to the Egnatia Motorway part of the TENT), cuts through bear habitat in Kastoria region in an open valley framed by Gramos and Vitsi-Askio mountains, where a bear population of 150-220 ind. minimum is present. Despite the presence of 134 mitigation structures (mostly culvert underpasses) incremented at an average distance of 400m over the total length of the highway, since 2009 and up to 2014, 21 bear traffic fatalities occurred along this highway segment mainly due to poor fencing. We used telemetry and remote sensing technology in order to investigate and evaluate the oriented use of these mitigation structures by bears after the installation of a bear-proof fence in 2013- 14 which dramatically decreased the number oftrafficfatalities.Thepurposeofthisdouble approach was also to investigate whether the bear-proof fence started functioning as an artificial barrier or as a triggering factor for more systematic use of the mitigation structures by bears. Nineteen adult and sub-adult bears (6 M and 13 F) were fitted with GPS/GSM radiocollars over three different periods: 2011- 2012 (before bear proof fence installation) and 2014, 2015 (after bear proof fence installation) yielding 58,373 radiolocations. We analysed the spatial patterns of telemetry data to investigate the use of mitigation structures by radio-tagged bears, given the 30min radiolocation interval of the pre-programmed radio-collars. A simple model where straight lines connect consecutive radiolocations was used to describe the animals’ movement.Mitigation structure expected attractiveness/suitability was classified according to the Openness Index (OI) and a correlated buffer zone was attributed to each structure, relative to the logarithmic ranked value of the OI. We examined the structure use with the assumption that all highway ...