Guidance for habitat quality evaluations (fertility) of brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758.) hunting grounds in BiH

Abstract

These instructions aim to help hunting-ground managers in carrying out the necessary quality evaluations of bear habitats on their hunting-grounds. The purpose of such a task is to enable the managers to decide which steps to take in order to maintain efficient bear management.In the past, the habitats of the bear populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina have offered all the necessary conditions for satisfying the living needs of this hunting-game species. The progress of the civilization and the ever-growing human needs for natural resources have brought about a significant deterioration of the natural conditions of the surroundings. The nutritional value, need for peace and other factors have brought this deterioration to a level that has started to have a negative effect upon the quality of life of this extraordinary biological species and hunting-game. Today, their fate is solely in the human hands as they can only live in large, undisturbed forests and healthy habitats. As is the case with all the other large carnivore species on top of the food chain, bears are the best measure of the remaining natural resistance and elasticity. The quality level of the hunting-grounds established through the evaluation of all the groups of factors (biotic and abiotic factors of negative human activities and measures of additional feeding in points), defines possible population densities in a 1000 hectares of the hunting area, from which can later be calculated the possible hunting-ground capacity. In essence, this was the purpose of these instructions in order to determine the adequate measures in evaluations of habitat quality on the hunting-grounds of bear populations on our territories.