CROATIAN FAUNA 2011 - BROWN BEAR

The author of the photograph of the Brown Bear is Đuro Huber. In Croatia there lives a Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), one of the eight species of bears in the world. It belongs to the order of beasts (Carnivora) and the family of bears (Ursidae). Although a beast, the Brown Bear satisfies 95% of his nutritional requirements by eating plant food, while for the rest of 5% of animal proteins in bear’s food provide mainly invertebrates and large animal carcasses. Among plant food in spring and summer dominate herbaceous plants and grasses, supplemented in summer also with various soft fruits and in autumn with the fruit of the beech as the main food used in the formation of winter reserves of subcutaneous fat. Bears are the biggest living meat eaters on land. In Croatia grown-up females weight between 100 – 130 kg, and males between 150 – 200 kg, some even up to 300 kg. Within the period of one year the weight of a grown-up bear can vary for more then one third: the greatest weight is in late autumn before lair building, and the smallest in the beginning of summer, i.e. at the end of the pairing season. The body is covered by long fur and thick underfur predominantly brown, often dark brown, even black, on the spine. While walking, the bears touch earth with whole foot, exactly like man. On foot-fingers there are claws, especially long on front legs (about 5 to six cm) and very strong. The bear uses them to dig in the ground, in rotten stumps and ant hills, to turn over stones, to kill and tear the prey. The bear’s denture has all the characteristics of beasts with typical incisors, canines and carnassials. In November the bear prepares his lair. In our areas the majority of lairs are found in smaller hollows in rocks which the bears adapt to their needs by digging. In the lair the bear prepares a comfortable bed of dried grass, leaves or branches. In the lair the bear hibernates, i.e. does not eat or drink for more than three months. Though, some bears can be found active throughout the whole winter. The bears mate from the end of May to the middle of July, and the cubs are born in January during hibernation. The female bear give birth to one to four cubs weighting about 350 g, blind and almost furless. She feeds them with its milk containing about 22% fat and 12% proteins. The cubs spend with their mother their first year of life and the next winter in liar, and are ready to separate at the age of 1,5 year, in May and June when the mother mates again. Our bears mature in three to four years, and can live in nature between 10 and 20 years. In the area of 12.000 km2 of Gorski kotar and Lika there live about 1000 bears. Today in Croatian a bear has the status of hunted wildlife and can be hunted outside reserve areas. The limited size of available habitat and a vast space necessary for the life of each bear make a more significant population growth impossible, which fact then results in the status of a rare species. The smallest life area for a single bear is about 250 km2, and the habitat must not be divided by roads or other human interference. In new highway’s areas passing through bear’s habitat have thus been built a number of special crossings and green bridges. The woods where the bears live are in no case more dangerous places for a human than city streets. One should bear in mind that the bears are afraid of people and avoid them but do not like to be taken by surprise. The mother bear cares very much for her cubs so do not influence the behaviour of the bear by bringing food or inducing restlessness, do not surprise the bear and come close, but also do not run away from them. In Croatia bears are being radiotelemetrically (since 1981) and in other ways (recently also genetically) monitored at the locations of Plitvice Lakes, Risnjak and Velebit. Đuro Huber