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 monitored from 1993-1998. By merging 1698 daily locations with habitat data in a Geographic Information System (GIS) we investigated bear-habitat relationships on two different scales and with three different approaches: (1) a comparison of bear locations and random points (2) compositional analysis and (3) the composition of different size range estimators. Bears were limited in their movements to forest cover, but showed only a weak avoidance of human infrastructure. In a landscape with a high forest cover, a low degree of forest fragmentation and where illegal killing is a minor problem, the disturbance and displacement potential of roads and villages seems low. In chapter 4.4. I assessed the impact of the Ljubljana-Razdrto highway by analyzing movement patterns and home ranges of 15 individual bears that lived in the vicinity of the highway and by analyzing transportation related mortality statistics. The Ljubljana-Razdrto highway and the parallel railway were not avoided by bears but the highway acts as a filter for bear movements and both traffic axes pose a significant mortality risk. Although at present these traffic axes constitute no immediate threat to the bear population, mitigation measures would be desirable and also help other wildlife. In chapter 4.5. I addressed the human dimension of bear-man co-existence in Slovenia. The multivariate analysis of 1519 questionnaires from two different study areas (a high bear density, low conflict area and a low bear density, high conflict area) revealed that all respondents hold very positive attitudes towards bears, regardless of the different conflict level. However support for a further increase in bear numbers is low. Fear and damage related topics were the most important factors predicting attitude, while knowledge level, place of residence and socio-demographic factors only played a minor role. Respondents had a high interest in the bear issue and were mostly concerned about population numbers and the distribution range of bears. The natural conditions for bears are still very favorable in Slovenia and contiguous habitat exists that allows bear movements into and from neighboring countries. However, conflicts exist requiring international cooperation and coordination. In this respect, more initiatives from the responsible agencies in Slovenia, but also in Austria and Italy would be necessary, including financial support. It should always be kept in mind that the development of the bear population in the Alps will largely depend on the bear management policy in Slovenia.     «

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 southe...     »