Impact factors in occurrence of human-bear conflicts

Among many different possible conflicts between humans and bears, those
that are a consequence of bear feeding behaviour are the most common. The
distribution and gravity of conflicts depend not only on the quantity and on
availability of anthropogenic food sources, but also on habitat
characteristics, structure of landscape (overlap between bear habitat and
settlements) and bear densities.

In this report, we analysed factors that influence i) bear presence in
space and hence conflicts due to interaction with humans, ii) differences
between bears in different areas, and iii) potential changes in bear behaviour
over time.

We found that despite many conflicts in settlements, bears strongly
prefer forest. They avoid cultural environment and farmland as well as
settlements and roads. Conflicts are more likely to occur in areas with higher
bear densities, in larger settlements and in settlements, where houses are closer
to the forest edge. Distance of settlements to forest edge has shortened noticeable
in the last decades, which is why bears probably feel safe also close to
settlements. At the same time, settlements provide abundant anthropogenic food
sources, which have been found on almost half of bear telemetry locations in
the vicinity of settlements. Bears fed on anthropogenic sources such as organic
waste, fruits and vegetables.

Click here to view the report (in Slovenian with English summary).