engleski

Threats for long-term survival of brown bears: Croatian perspective (Fair numbers are not enough to guarantee survival)

With an estimated population of 400 European brown bears (Ursus arctos) on roughly 9,800 km2 or 17% of Croatia the carrying capacity of habitat may be considered to have been reached. Despite the reasonable and stable population number there are several medium- and long-term threats for the future of bear population in Croatia:1. Increasing disturbance in the bear habitat due to the opening of forest by new forest roads, other forestry operations, and in particular construction of new highway through Gorski kotar. The highway itself might separate bear and other wildlife populations if the proposed mitigation measures will not be fully implemented. The general disturbance interferes with natural life cycle of bears, but also contributes to 1/5 of total bear mortality through traffic kills which significantly rose in the last 7 years. 2. Bear management based on the local scale. The animals with large movement like bears should be managed uniformly within their entire habitat. 3. Forest deterioration due to exploitation, replanting with only one tree species (spruce), and general death of forests whatever the cause is. 4. The last, but probably most important, long-term threat is the garbage conditioning of bears, which is over generations of bears changing their natural feeding and living habits, thus making them less shy and intolerable to share space with humans. We conclude that brown bears do survive in the forests of the mountains of Croatia not only because this type of habitat is the best suited for their needs, but also because this areas are the least affected by man. However, the continuous gradual changes in this region are shrinking it"s size and deteriorating it"s suitability for bears. We propose a certain level of protection of the entire habitat (e. g. Biosphere Reserve) with elimination of al consumable garbage, as well as strict protection of critical resorts for bear denning, resting and feeding where all man related activities should be excluded.

brown bear; Croatia; threats; population size

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