Study

Fast food bears: brown bear diet in a human-dominated landscape with intensive supplemental feeding

  • Published source details Kavčič I., Adamič M., Kaczensky P., Krofel M., Kobal M. & Jerina K. (2015) Fast food bears: brown bear diet in a human-dominated landscape with intensive supplemental feeding. Wildlife Biology, 21, 1-8.

Actions

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

Action Category

Provide diversionary feeding for mammals to reduce nuisance behaviour and human-wildlife conflict

Action Link
Terrestrial Mammal Conservation
  1. Provide diversionary feeding for mammals to reduce nuisance behaviour and human-wildlife conflict

    A site comparison study in 1993-1998 in three regions comprising mainly forest and agricultural fields in Slovenia (Kavčič et al. 2015) found that providing diversionary feeding to reduce human-brown bear Ursus arctos conflict resulted in 22-63% of the estimated annual energy content of the diet of bears comprising supplementary food. Across the three regions, supplemental food was highest in the diet and was the most important food items in spring (maize: 27%; carrion: 26%), but not in summer (total 26%) and autumn (27%). The annual proportion of maize in the diet increased with the density of feeding sites (low density: 10-20%; high density: 52%). The proportion of all supplementary food in the diet followed a similar pattern (low density feeding sites: 22-33%; high density: 63%). In the three regions there was at least one carrion feeding site/60 km2 of bear habitat (annual estimate: 33-146 kg/km2) and maize feeding sites at average densities of one site/5.6 km2 of bear habitat (annual estimate: 70-280 kg/km2). Approximately two-thirds of feeding sites were supplied with food throughout the year. One region had a higher intensity of supplemental feeding (34 feeding sites/km2) than the other two (16 feeding sites/km2). A total of 714 brown bear scats were collected opportunistically (153-313/season, 220-260/region) from March to November 1993-1998 across the three regions and analysed.

    (Summarised by: Rebecca Smith)

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