Variation and conservation implications of the effectiveness of anti-bear interventions

2020 | journal article. A publication with affiliation to the University of Göttingen.

Jump to: Cite & Linked | Documents & Media | Details | Version history

Cite this publication

​Khorozyan I, Waltert M. ​Variation and conservation implications of the effectiveness of anti-bear interventions​. ​​Scientific Reports. ​2020;​10​(1). ​doi:10.1038/s41598-020-72343-6. 

Documents & Media

s41598-020-72343-6.pdf1.34 MBAdobe PDF

License

Published Version

Special user license Goescholar License

Details

Authors
Khorozyan, Igor; Waltert, Matthias 
Abstract
Abstract Human-bear conflicts triggered by nuisance behaviour in public places and damage to livestock, crops, beehives and trees are among the main threats to bear populations globally. The effectiveness of interventions used to minimize bear-caused damage is insufficiently known and comparative reviews are lacking. We conducted a meta-analysis of 77 cases from 48 publications and used the relative risk of damage to compare the effectiveness of non-invasive interventions, invasive management (translocations) and lethal control (shooting) against bears. We show that the most effective interventions are electric fences (95% confidence interval = 79.2–100% reduction in damage), calving control (100%) and livestock replacement (99.8%), but the latter two approaches were applied in only one case each and need more testing. Deterrents varied widely in their effectiveness (13.7–79.5%) and we recommend applying these during the peak periods of damage infliction. We found shooting (− 34.2 to 100%) to have a short-term positive effect with its effectiveness decreasing significantly and linearly over time. We did not find relationships between bear density and intervention effectiveness, possibly due to differences in spatial scales at which they were measured (large scales for densities and local fine scales for effectiveness). We appeal for more effectiveness studies and their scientific publishing in regard to under-represented conflict species and regions.
Issue Date
2020
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK
Journal
Scientific Reports 
eISSN
2045-2322
Language
English
Sponsor
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2021

Reference

Citations


Social Media