Semperviva is a Bulgarian organization which started to breed livestock uarding dogs again. Every year, one or two litters of puppies are raised. When the puppies are old enough they are taken (for free) to pre-selected shepherds, who sign an agreement confirming their understanding of how to take care of the dogs. The dogs need to work in pairs and very often a younger pup is trained by an adult dog. With its follow-up programme Semperviva checks on the dogs twice a year until they are confident that the dogs behaviour is appropriate. Bears in Mind funded the breeding project between 2002-2011.
In the old days, the Karakachan dog breed was used specially to protect flocks of sheep. The Semperviva programme makes it possible for shepherds to obtain a puppy and receive training in how to care for the dogs and use them to protect their livestock. Every year, a dozen puppies were placed in the eastern part of the Rhodopy mountains in Bulgaria. Furthermore, the number of attacks by bears and wolves before and after the introduction of the dogs are compared. Over the years, it has been proven that flocks accompanied by these dogs have suffered substantially less losses to large carnivores.
In 2008 Indian wildlife NGO ‘WildlifeSOS’ started the training of rangers under the project: ‘Asiatic black bear Conservation Education and Training Programme in Kashmir, India’. They were trained to deal with the capture of bears and other wild animals. Practice with a tranquilizer gun was very important. In addition, they were also trained in dealing with angry mobs that wanted to kill bears or leopards that came too close, also in retalliation as resulting in conflicts. Wild animals should be calmly approached and treated. This minimizes stress levels and is safer for the ranger / handler. There are a number of trained people now in almost every region of the project. They respond immediately, as soon as a bear incident is reported.
Local people learn about the behaviour of wild animals and how they can avoid conflicts. Once there has been an incident with a bear or other wild animal somewhere, village meetings are held. The people of WildlifeSOS explain how the bears can be kept as far from the villages as possible. They also teach the communities how to avoid bears in the future and urge them to report every bear incident as quickly as possible. Even schoolchildren are included in the education programme. They learn about bears, how beautiful they are, but also how important they are to the ecosystem. Through workshops and training the locals will have a more positive attitude towards bears. Moreover, their fear for bears will decrease. Almost every bear incident is reported, unlike before. In the past the only message that came from the village with a bear incident was that the bear had been burned alive or stoned to death. Not only bears benefit from this project; virtually no other wild animal in this area has been killed by the locals ever since it started.
The main aim of the project in 2008-2009 was to collect information that will enable a preliminary assessment of the current status of brown bears in Albania and Macedonia. Field surveys were carried out during which indirect signs of bear presence (i.e. tracks, scats, feeding signs etc.) were collected. In addition, a new non-invasive study method developed in Greece was used. This method is based on the marking behaviour of bears and uses signs (i.e. marks, bites, hair, mud prints) found on power poles to document the presence of the species in a given area. As marks and bites stay on wooden poles for a long time, they provide information not only on the current status of bear populations but also on the cumulative history of the presence of the species. By attaching barbed wire to these poles, hair was easily collected and later used for DNA analysis.
In Macedonia the project team did not find any bears in captivity. In Albania, however, dozens of captive bears were identified. They are kept in small, badly-managed zoos or in cages near restaurants or petrol stations. Most animals are kept in extremely small cages en receive poor quality food and only little water. Keeping a restaurant bear is extremely popular and the demand for young animals is increasing. The cubs are mostly captured in the wild. This puts a strain on the wild population. Bears in Mind and several partners, together with the Albanian government, are looking into the solutions to these problems.
A Bears in Mind-funded research study between 2010-2013 conducted by the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) focused mainly on Female Core Areas. These are areas inhabited by female bears, often with their offspring. Therefore, it is important to carefully protect these areas. More in-depth knowledge will help the government to implement stricter and more specific conservation measures. In the long run, these measures will contribute to the survival of bears in Iran. A national Brown Bear Management Plan will be formulated based on the research results.
Protecting the bears This research will lead to the creation of a topical database containing numbers, distribution and information about the genetic relationship among brown bears. This data will be used in training sessions and workshops for the Iranian authorities, responsible for protecting the bears and their habitat. This knowledge will enable them to better address the problem of poaching.
Results All gathered data combined and analyzed, it shows us that brown bears prefer habitats far from human settlements and tend to prefer habitats with higher slope and elevation. As a result, more than 13% of Lorestan territory is considered to be suitable for the species. However, official protection has been established within no more than 27.7 % of the species suitable areas. These findings highlight further importance of enhancing bear conservation across the Province and probably, the entire Zagros region through identification of high priority areas, particularly in southern province.
Finally, management implications have been discussed and shared with local authorities. All the data were also shared with Lorestan Department of Environment so they can promote monitoring plans.
The bear sanctuary ‘Tat Kuang Si’, managed by Free the Bears (FTB) provides shelter to many Asiatic black bears and Malayan sun bears. Most of these bears were confiscated and rescued at an early age from poachers by the government of Lao with help from FTB. More than 200,000 people from Lao PDR and abroad visit the sanctuary annually. Through an education program, visitors can learn more about both bears and the illegal trade in wildlife in Lao PDR.
Aside from the education program, research into human-bear conflict (HWC) was carried out in the field. These conflicts lead to people developing a negative attitude towards bears. Bears regularly seek food in the corn fields surrounding the national parks and can thus destroy a complete crop. Earlier research in 2010 showed that most villages were invaded regularly by bears looking for corn. Park rangers are trained to address these human-bear conflicts immediately and effectively. Bear sightings are reported through a special ‘hotline’.
The HWC study between 2011 and 2013 was funded by Bears in Mind.
FTB has been working actively in Southeast Asia for many years and has successfully tackled the problems in Lao PDR from the source. In 2011, FTB started a campaign in their bear sanctuary ‘Tat Kuang Si’ to raise awareness among the local population and the government concerning the issues wild bears are facing. FTB also reinforces legislation and offers hunters an alternative source of income.
With financial support from Bears in Mind, a mobile education and emergency bear rescue vehicle was purchased. It was also used for transportation of small groups from Luang Prabang to ‘Tat Kuang Si’ in order to join on-site education activities, used for the transportation of educators and equipment to remote areas or other provincial capitals for outreach work, and of course for bear rescue interventions.
In the spring of 2009, three orphaned Asiatic black bears were taken to a small animal sanctuary in Far East Russia. The bears, one female and her two brothers, have been part of an intensive rehabilitation programme between 2009 and 2011. They were prepared for a life in the wild. During this period the three bears have been ‘guided’ around the woods by two researchers. During these sessions, the guides were wearing camouflage clothing and they did not speak. By means of photographs, sound and image recordings, the researchers have been able to follow the development of the bears in detail.
In 2010, the bears were released into the wild. Just before their release, the two males weighed between 20 and 23 kilos, while the female weighed around 8 kilos. All three bears are wearing radiocollars with a transmitter, enabling the researchers to keep track on the bears. In the forest, a chance meeting with a Siberian tiger or an adult bear is very likely.In the time since their release, the bear were followed closely and did well. After two years, the collars automatically fell off.
The project has proven to be a great success and a lot of vital information about adolescent rehabilitated bears has been gathered and shared.
Increased knowledge and awareness among local people regarding the lifestyle of bears is of great importance if we want to adequately protect wild animals like bears. Unfortunately, in Nepal, knowledge and awareness about these topics is still lacking. Therefore, education programmes for schools, training for the local people and an eco-club have been set up for this project between 2011-2014. The desired outcome from this training was that local people learned how to deal with bears within their immediate vicinity and received information regarding the protection of bears and nature in general. Multiple workshops for shepherds and civil servants were also organised under this programme.
More about bear research in Nepal Data relating to the bear population was collected through a wide range of different methods. Researchers interviewed people from the villages in the areas where conflicts between humans and bears occurred, DNA material is collected from hair samples and droppings, and tracks (such as claw marks on trees, footprints on the ground and traces of digging) were investigated. Information was also collected about the habitat such as the type of forest, slopes, the soil types and tracks of other animals. All of the information collected was processed and analysed via a specially developed computer program. The ultimate objective of this project was to contribute to the National Brown Bear Conservation Action Plan whose primary goal is to provide protection to the brown bear in Nepal. This is still an ongoing process.
Results The following has been achieved during the two projects in Nepal:
1) Presence/absence surveys of the brown bear in all potential areas of the corridor between Annapurna Conservation Area and Shey Phoksundo NP and within the protected areas. 2) Examine distribution and habitat use of brown bears in the study areas. 3) Investigate human-wildlife conflict in the region and quantify the damage and conflict created by brown bears. 4) Investigate the diet of brown bears and assess the percentage of livestock and other wild prey in the brown bear’s diet. 5) Draft the Brown Bear Conservation Action Plan for Nepal.
There is much discussion about whether rehabilitated bears are likely to become problem bears. Therefore, data collected in this project is of paramount importance to this discussion. Of course we would prefer to be able to release orphaned bears in the wild again, rather than putting them in captivity for the rest of their lives. However, we must be absolutely certain that the rehabilitation process has no negative impact on their natural behaviour, increasing the chances of the released bear becoming a ‘problem bear’.
Between 2008 and 2013, a total of 19 bears have been equipped with GPS/GSM collars in order to assess the suitability of rehabilitated bears for reintroduction in the natural habitats. Ten of these bears were reared in the Romanian Rehabilitation Center (developed by Bear Again) and nine were wild caught individuals of two behavior categories: (1) wild behaving juveniles and (2) individuals with different degrees of habituation to anthropogenic food sources. The project revealed and proved that reintroduction of the rehabilitated bears into the wild is successful and without any threatening impact on the wild population. The survival rate of the rehabilitated tracked bears was around 50% (it is 55% considering all the rehabilitated bears). This is according with the survival rate of juvenile wild bears in the literature. One of the most important regulating factors can be considered the infanticide killing by adult male bears. An important threat is poaching.
Monitoring the bears and collar results is still ongoing.
2020 onwards One of the basics of the rehabilitation technique is keeping the cubs in a system of several enclosures that offer 100% natural habitat. In this environment, the bears can develop their inborn instincts during a 1 – 1,5 years of rehab period. The facilities are surrounded by electrical fences. The electrical fence on one hand keeps the young bears inside the facilities and keeps intruder adult male bears or other predators out. The main aim of the support offered by Bears in Mind to this project has been directed towards improvement of the total electrical system of the Rehab Centre in order to keep the cubs safe, improve data communication and decrease the risk of depredation by males from outside. Next to that, the development of several remote cableway feeding systems have been sponsored. This allows the team from Bear Again to get the food to the bear cubs without being noticed. This way, these bears won’t associate food with people, an important lession for their future!
This project titled “Brown bear conservation and research program in a model area in Romania” is one of the longest continual projects supported by Bears in Mind, started in 2006. It has many topics, focusing on research on the bear population and conservation of bears in the Eastern Carpathians in Romania,with theaim to prevent bear-human conflicts. Damages caused by bears to livestock and crops are closely monitored. Research on denning behaviour and locations, knowledge about bear home ranges, movement and activity patterns, habitat use and food searching behaviour of the bears, is also carried out. Over the years, many bears have been fitted with radio collars to monitor their behaviour and gather as much data as possible.
Together with the help of local farmers, electric fences surrounding orchards and beehives are tested and placed. Milvus participates in public discussions on bears, organizes educational projects in schools, field excursions and develops educational material. They are mitigating plans for a new highway through prime bear habitat and have done extensive research on the impact on the population. Additionally, every year Milvus receives dozens of calls about orphaned (sometimes injured) bear cubs. After treatment by Vets4Wild (partner of Milvus), the cubs are sent to the rehabilitation centre run by Bear Again.
Improving the social acceptance of the species Since 2018, Bears in Mind provides funding for a campaign to improve the acceptance of bears in Romania. Through a ten-episode mini-series, Milvus aimes to spread correct and factual information on bears, to try to counterbalance the omnipresent negative rhetoric (and frequent misinformation) in the Hungarian and Romanian massmedia. Each episode was realized in both Hungarian and Romanian languages, with both versions having English subtitles (these can be switched on in YouTube, CC button for Episode 1, and are embedded in each subsequent episode). Each episode was shared on Milvus Group’s own Facebook page, on YouTube, as well as on the Milvus Group webpage. For the shares on our Facebook page, we also had funding to advertise each episode. Ten episodes have been produced:
At the end of the 20th century, the main sources of income of local communities in rural Romania were mining, but also agriculture and forest industry. Following the restructuring of the Romanian economy, most of the mines were closed. Nowadays, former mining communities are looking at possibilities to generate alternative income and more pressure is put on the valuable forest resources. One of these communities is Grosii Tiblesului.
Grosii Tiblesului is a Romanian community with >2,200 inhabitants in the county of Maramures with a stunning landscape: hills with hay meadows, rivers meandering through the landscape and mountains covered with natural and pristine forests. It’s the closest community to the Tibles Mountains (highest peak is 1,848m). Forests are owned by the state and partly by the local community (Grosii Tiblesului Composesorat Association). They are managed by the Grosii Tiblesului Forest District. There is still a significant area of old-growth forest (about 4,000ha) and natural forests, being a valuable habitat for the brown bear, wolf, red deer, wild boar, lynx, marten, rare species of birds and plants. The old-growth forest area is the last one in the Maramures county.
In 2008 WWF-Romania started an awareness raising project for nature conservation in this community. This process is focused on the preservation of bear habitat. The local richness in cultural traditions and extraordinary natural resources and biodiversity, might very well transform Grosii Tiblesului in an ecotourism destination. Preservation of bear habitat and, in parallel developing income generating activities through ecotourism, will help focus local economics on nature conservation.
Activities in this project focused on the contribution to research activities on large carnivores and their habitat, to raise awareness and knowledge about bears in the community and to develop the first steps towards an attractive ecotourism programme linked to the bear, other wildlife as well as to the traditional coexistence of bears and local communities. Bears in Mind funded the project between 2008-2009 and one of the main aspects was the construction of a bear observation tower.
