Austria Study Area Methods
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THE BROWN BEAR IN CARINTHIA:HISTORY AND STATUS IN SOUTHERN AUSTRIA BERNHARD GUTLEB, World Wide Fund For Nature Austria-Bear Project Carinthia, P.O. Box 1, A-9545 Radenthein, Austria Abstract: Places that are named after bears are spread over the whole of Carinthiaand the rest of Austria. Although not all of these names derive directly from a former presence of brown bears (Ursus arctos), other historical data such as hunting statistics and bone collections confirm that there were bears living in all areas of Austria, including Carinthia. The brown bear in Carinthiahas not been extirpated and continues to survive. Bears continue to travel to Carinthiaalong a 300-km corridorfrom the bear range of Slovenia and Croatia. Presently there are an estimated 12 bears in Carinthiaand the surroundingarea. They do not seem to depend on domestic livestock or beehives, but prefer naturalfoods. The amount of damage caused by bears is not high, averaging approximately$5,000/year during 1990-95. Reproduction was observed 3 times from 1989 to 1995 (2 cubs in 1989, 1 in 1990, 1 in 1995). If these bears are not cut off from the source populationin Slovenia and Croatia and if negative public attitude present in other Austrian bear areas (2 bears were shot in 1994) does not spread to Carinthia,there is a realistic chance for the survival of this small bear population. There is an urgent need for a bear managementplan for all areas of Austrian bear range. Ursus 10:75-79 Key words: Austria, Carinthia,European brown bear, history, status, Ursus arctos. The brownbear in middle Europeand especially in al- STUDYAREA pine regions,like Carinthia,has become almostextirpated Carinthiais the southernmoststate of Austria,bordering as a resultof huntingrather than habitat destruction. Suc- on Italy and Slovenia in the EasternAlps. It rangesfrom cessful recolonizationby bears will depend more on the 12?40'E to 15?03'E longitude and from 46?23'N to attitudesof the people living in these areasthan on resto- 47008'N latitude. Carinthiais 9,533 km2,an average of rationof habitat. However, due to the habitatfragmen- 180 km wide in a east-west directionand 60 km wide in tationand high humandensity, especially when compared a north-southdirection. The humanpopulation of about to Asian and North Americanbear range, there are con- 550,000 is concentratedin the lowlands and the valley flicts with farmers and hunters throughoutmost of the bottoms (about 30% of Carinthia). About 70% of bear in range Austria. Many Austriansare only prepared Carinthiais mountainous,and elevations range from 348 to unseen but accept shy, bears, it is usually the more m to 3,797 m. The climateis south-alpinewith an average courageous and active bears that are able to reach the temperaturein the bearrange of 16.6 C in July and -3.8 C settled from densely country Slovenia and Croatia. in January; the region averages 9 days >25 C/year Since 1950 the bear has been present in Carinthia;4 (measuredat WeiB3ensee-Gatschachat 941 m in 1993). bears, all male have been shot duringthis time (1 shot in Most precipitationoccurs between June and October with 2 in 1950, 1965, 1 in 1971). Since 1971 the bear has a yearly average of 80-250 cm (Neureiter1994). been in Carinthia. The protected CarinthianHunting Bears normally use mountainousareas ranging from Associationhas collectedbear observations andhas played 800 to 2,000 m in elevation. Dominanttree species are a considerablerole in their protection. The Association Norway spruce(Picea abies), pine (Pinus sylvestris),and for bear and compensatespeople damage promotescon- Europeanlarch (Larixdecidua). Fructificatingleaf trees servation their among members by not hunting bears. like Europeanbeech (Fagus sylvatica) or oak (Quercus Detailed information on population size, reproduction, petraea, Quercus robur) are only of local importance. habitat,and food habits of Carinthianbrown bears is not Myrtlewhortle berry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is widespread available. Therefore,the World Wide Fund for Nature and can be found from 350 to 2,300 m. (WWF)Austria started a projectto studythe distribution, status, and populationtrend of brown bears in Carinthia beginning in late 1991. In this paper I summarizethe METHODS results of this for study 1992-95. I analyzed local newspaperarticles, informationcol- thanks to M. My Adamic, CarinthianHunting Asso- lected by the CarinthianState Museum, and data com- ciation, G. N. Dick, Gerstl, A., B., A., and A. Gutleb, D. piled by the CarinthianHunting Association to describe Huber, T. Huber, S. R. E. Klenzendorf, Kopf, Kraus,J. historical bear distribution. To obtain the precise num- Kusak,P. de Martin,P. Molinari,G. Rauer,T. Rottenburg, ber of places with bear-relatednames, I systematically W. Schr6derand WWF Austria. reviewed 213 Austrian geographical maps (1:50,000) 76 Ursus 10:1998 (Breitfeld 1992, Gutleb 1994a). Each observationwas parts of Austria (total 50,400 km2)and 6.6/1,000 km2in described by the map number, type of place (village, the lowlands (total 33,455 km2). mountain, etc.), elevation, latitude, and longitude and entered into a computerfile. FoodHabits Field work included general monitoring and damage There are 259 differenttypes of potentialfood sources evaluations. In each of the 4 years (1992-95), I spent in Carinthia,including 189 plants. In the 63 scats found between 72 and 77 days in the forest and walked be- between 1992-95, 71 food sources were observed. The tween 1,500 and 1,700 km (yearly average 75 days and most frequently observed foods were plant materials, 1,600 km) in all parts of Carinthiaand its surrounding which occurredin 47 of the 63 scats (75%;Table 1). areas to look for bear sign, including tracks, scats, hair, scratchmarks on trees, dug-up ant hills, and overturned Bear Damage rocks. Scats were analyzed in the field by visually de- The amountof damagecaused by bearsis low (Fig. 2). terminingthe presenceof plants,animal remains, insects, A total of 361 incidents of damage were recorded be- fruits, or berries. Only the frequency of contents was tween 1971-95. In winter (Dec-Feb) no damage was recorded. In addition to monitoring it became impor- reported. Damage is most common in the spring (Mar- tant to carryout educationalwork to stabilize the public May; 43% of all damage reported). In summer (Jun- attitudetoward bears (Gutleb 1992a,b,c, 1993a, 1994b,c, Aug) and fall (Sep-Nov) reporteddamage decreasedto 1995; Knaueret al. 1995). 27% and 30%,respectively. The annualaverage number of sheep killed was 8 (0-42; 203 in 25 years). From 1991 to 1995 the averagewas 13 (total 65). The yearly finan- RESULTS cial loss amountedto approximately$5,000 during this 5-year period. This loss was recoveredthrough an insur- HistoricalDistribution ance policy of the CarinthianHunting Association. Until the 18th century brown bears were very com- mon and widespread throughout Carinthia. Between PresentPopulation Status 1710 and 1724, 27 bears were shot or capturedin 1 west I estimatedthat about 12 bears reside in Carinthiaand Carinthianhunting area (Forstner 1982). Bears were shot its surroundingareas. Reproductionwas observed on 3 in Carinthiain 1860, 1884, 1950, 1965, and 1971 and occasions in the last 6 years.Two cubs were seen in 1989, were observedin all decades of this century(Berdl 1923; 1 in 1990, and 1 in 1995. The cubs of 1989 and 1990 Puschnig 1928, 1930, 1935; Gress 1930). Following the were observed by hunters,and I confirmedthe presence increase of the bear populationin Slovenia after 1950, of a female with a cub in early spring 1992. Tracksof a bearswere more often observedin Carinthia(Krze 1988). female with a 1 year-oldcub were found in the triangleof In 1971 the brown bear was given complete protection Carinthia,Austria-Friuli, Italy-Slovenia in spring 1995. and the hunting season was closed. The next majorpe- riod of the recolonization took place after Slovenians stopped hunting bears in 1992 in the corridorbetween DISCUSSIONAND CONCLUSIONS the core populationfrom Croatiaand Slovenia and Aus- After contactwith bears,including sightings,hunts, or tria and the border areas. Most Carinthianbears mi- other encounters,humans occasionally gave names con- of the grate through this 300-km northwest corridor (Fig. 1; tainingthe word bear(German, bar) to the location Gutleb 1993b, Adamic 1994). A second eastern corri- encounter. The older the name, the harderit is to find the dor, abandonedby bears since 1960, has been reused connectionto the word bear (Schnetz 1963). The Celtic so not all infrequentlysince 1993 (Fig. 1; M. Adamic, Carinthian word barr or barros was used for mountains, de- Hunting Assoc., Ljubljana, Slovenia, pers. commun., place names which appearto be bear-relatedactually 1995). rive from the presence of bears (Resch-Rauter 1992). However, the high numberof such bearplace-names and Bear Place-Names otherhistorical data confirms that bears did live through- I found 1,003 bear place-nameson the 213 geographi- out Carinthia, Austria, and Europe (Erdbrink 1953, Butzeck et al. cal maps (1:50,000) of Austria. The word Bar (bear) Coutourier 1954, Curry-Lindahl 1972, was in 378 of these place-names,and the rest contained 1988). an old or linguistically alteredname for bear. The den- About 2,000 bearslived in the Dinaricmountain range sity of names was 15.5/1,000 km2 in the mountainous before 1991, when the war in Croatia and Bosnia- BROWNBEAR IN SOUTHERNAUSTRIA * Gutleb 77 Fig. 1. Occupied brown bear range and bear corridors extending from Croatia and Slovenia to Carinthianbear range, Austria, 1995. Herzegovinabegan (Verstrael1988, Erome and Michelot Usually, only young male bears leave their range of 1990, Huber1990). About700 of themnow live in Croatia birthto look for new habitats(Buchalczyk 1980). Fortu- and Slovenia (Svigelj 1973, Adamic 1987, Huber and nately, 1 or possibly 2 females found their way into the Frkovic 1993) and form the source population for the study area.