Brief   #13: Berry-tastic

This is supposed to be the bear’s quiet period when it is too hot for them to do anything but loll around in the heat waiting for the first chill of autumn to set in. However the evidence has not shown this to be the case. Maria has travelled further than last month however her range size has not increased. The increased abundance of foodstuffs is giving her so much choice that it seems that she cannot decide what to eat.

After a short period grazing grasses and herbs on the high slopes she descended. Walking through the lower areas at the moment we constantly bump into locals collecting mushrooms and berries and it seems that Maria is doing the same. The blueberries are ripe at lower altitudes and she has been spending a particularly long time on one slope eating these – we expect her to move up the slopes as the berries ripen higher up. In addition there are the delicious wild raspberries which line the river banks and verges. In one of these raspberry rich areas we found that she had also been overturning stones (by stones read big rocks of about 10kgs) looking for grubs and insects. In addition in all of the areas we visited there is evidence of destroyed rotten tree stumps – it seems that bears contribute to the breaking down of organic matter in the forests more than we imagined.

Maria’s keen sense of smell (apparently 7 times that of a dog – how do they work these things out?) also discovered an old carcass. This was a male roe deer - judging by the remains it had probably been killed over the winter. All that was left were a few bones, lots of hair and the antlers. She visited this site twice although to us there seemed to be little of nutritional value left. Near to this carcass we found a bear scratching post with new marks and plenty of hair stuck in the resin. We will be placing a camera trap here shortly to see how many bears pass though this area and the frequency of the visits.

We visited the beavers and saw that in spite of the heavy rain their dam was still intact and looking good however we also visited another beaver dam and saw that it had been completely washed away – the cross section of it can be seen in the photo – which was disappointing but after the rains that we have had it is understandable. They will rebuild but will choose their next location more carefully.

Apart from that black terns, whinchats, plenty of lesser-spotted eagles and other birds have been seen recently. We recently had a raptor-tastic couple of days which was satisfying – peregrine falcon, marsh harrier, lesser-spotted eagle, goshawk, sparrowhawk, kestrel, buzzard and a lovely hobby, alas the golden eagle eluded us. We also visited a bat cave that has eight species roosting in it – we will be going there at dusk at some point to see the exodus – maybe this treat can be reserved for our next group on the 29AUG although the walking might be a little tough due to the steep terrain.

Oh, we also have a kettle in the office now which makes remarkably good tea – finally getting civilised.

Brief   #12: Summertime

The temperatures have got back to normal with 25 degrees in Poprad and sunshine a daily occurrence. There are occasionally thunderstorms which roll off the mountains in quite spectacular fashion.

To celebrate the coming of the nice weather we have put some gratuitous butterfly shots in with this post.

June saw a marked change in Maria’s behaviour again. Instead of continuing her grazing at the tops of the mountains she descended to the valleys and spent a large amount of time there. She seemed to stop in places for far less than she was. Maybe this is because before she had to eke out as much food as possible with using much energy…She has however increased her distance travelled in June but has had a reduced range which indicates the constant short journeys she is making.

She spent a total of seven days on the grassy slopes in June however she did this on three separate occasions. She also achieved her highest altitude at just under 2000m.

The evidence indicates that there is far more food about. Therefore it is not necessary for her to stuff herself as much as possible when she finds food. Rather it would appear that she leads a much more relaxed lifestyle, eating a bit, wandering a bit, eating a bit.

We visited a lowland meadow the other day and found the tracks of Maria periodically interspersed with anthills that had been destroyed. A bit of protein, a few herbs and then move on…

We have noticed that at some points she has been purposefully heading in one direction and then all of a sudden she turns around and for the next hour covers a large distance. We think that this might be due to being scared by something, either human or bear.

We have recently footage of two female bears having a territorial fight in these mountains. Maria being a small, young female would doubtless lose in any such contest – maybe this is why she is not grazing the choicest slopes in the valleys during the day. It might also explain some of these sudden directional changes.

Most birds have young that are in nest or have fledged. Young sparrows, fieldfares, swifts, black redstarts, chaffinches and serin abound in the centre of Poprad. Pavement café culture is definitely upon us and everyone looks a lot happier!

Brief   #11: The start of the feeding period - June 2010

It was the wettest May for 70 years here in Slovakia and the torrid weather made it difficult to get out into the field. However we did manage to check a few sites that Maria has been frequenting.

Maria has changed her behaviour considerably. Now that the grasses have started to grow and the insects are awake she has stopped going to the feeding stations that were such an integral part of her travels each day. Instead she has been spending increasing amounts of time higher up in the mountains. After a prolonged period of time at about 1650m she descended rapidly and we went to investigate. We discovered that the mountain slopes where she had been were covered in a layer of snow about 35cm deep, thus stopping her from feeding. The temperature readings from her collar also decreased rapidly from an average of 13 to 5 degrees Celsius.

After she descended she spent a few days in the same place at about 1300m - just above the cottage where our clients stay on trips. We went to have a look and found lots of evidence of her breaking up rotting logs and stumps, undoubtedly looking for insects and grubs. Also we found a large amount of dung that was full of grass, indicating that she had been grazing significantly on the higher slopes before coming down.

Rather than returning to the upper slopes after the weather cleared up Maria went walkabout and increased her range, especially in the direction of the lowlands. It would appear that again the search for insects and grubs was top of her agenda.

Why she hasn’t returned to the high slopes now that the weather is better is a mystery. Maybe she has had too much grass for the time being or maybe she has a fear of lightning and stormy weather and the associated treacherous conditions.

Last week we received our first group of the season. Although conditions were not great we did manage to see a mother with two semi-adult cubs (they will probably leave her this year) and a young adolescent male. One of the team also saw a large adult male on the same day. Five bears in two days was a great return in conditions that gave us low visibility and little chance to walk extensively in bear rich areas. We also saw plenty of red deer – some of the males have already got impressive sets of velvet covered antlers.

As the weather improved we managed to get a couple of good walks under our belts. We had a decent sighting of a three-toed woodpecker and a prolonged fight between a pair of red-backed shrikes and a number of great tits. The weather was glorious on the final day in the mountains so we walked up to a pass in the Belianske Tatras. We had fantastic views and great sightings of Chamois leaping across the path. We also saw the world famous and endemic Carpathian blue slug (Bielzia coerulans) on a number of occasions.

The other day the strange behaviour of the lesser-spotted eagle was observed – one less hamster presumably.

With all of the rain the beavers will probably have activated their sluice gates however a trip to them had to be aborted due to the conditions.

Brief   #10: First results - May 2010

Maria, as she has been named, has been doing just fine. There were initial issues with the signals but finally the data started coming through and we began to be able to see exactly what she does on a day to day basis.

The most striking thing is how habitual she is. She tends to rest during the daylight hours. On over ninety percent of the occasions when she has been resting she went back to the same area of forest. In addition there are various waypoints that she seems to pass virtually every night, these need to be investigated more thoroughly.

Yesterday we went up to one such waypoint to look for evidence and found a large number of very clear prints and some dung. However on a closer inspection we noticed that the prints seemed to be of two sizes. We measured them and also stumbled on another pile of extremely fresh dung which was smaller than the rest. With both of these bits of evidence we came to the conclusion that the cub in the clearing had indeed been Maria’s and that they were now reunited.

There is still little food about so the bears are in their period of hypophagia, a physiological state where their bodies are adapted to fasting. This will change as the new grasses come through.

Currently Maria’s range is about 6.5 km by 6.5km but we expect this to change significantly as she moves to the prime grass areas.

The temperatures have been over 20 degrees for the past few days and the swallows, martins and swifts are all back. In the woods the black woodpecker has been showing well and the chiffchaffs and cuckoos can be heard everywhere. We saw our first lesser-spotted eagle of the year yesterday as well – a raptor that is particularly partial to hunting on the ground – no doubt after the large hamster population of this area.

With all this excitement the beavers have been a little bit neglected but I am sure that they are doing a sterling job, we will go and see them this month.

Brief   #9: Finally success - April 2010

In the last news we said that Boris had been sniffing around the cage. After he went into it a couple of times the night watches started. Finally on the 23rd March he went in again and the lads were there to pull the trigger…but disaster. The mechanism failed and Boris ran off into the woods. We were all very disappointed and feared that with him having been spooked that was it for that cage in that area. We made plans to move it. We felt that with Boris being the dominant male in the area, in addition to him not going back to the cage, other bears would be dissuaded by the strong scent of him.

Just in case of a minor miracle a hastily constructed automatic release mechanism was placed in the cage and we continued to bait it whilst we discussed where we would move it to.

At 7am on Good Friday (02nd April) we received a telephone call to say that a bear was in the cage! We shot off to the site and sure enough inside the cage was a smaller, 140kg bear. The rangers had gone to the cage at 6am to check it and at first they saw a juvenile bear in the clearing. It ran off on seeing them and then they noticed that there was another one in the cage.

The camera trap pictures showed that she had entered it at 8.30pm the previous night.

We darted it and found her to be a female bear. The juvenile was probably her cub however it was fully weaned and more than capable of looking after itself. We are sure that they will rejoin each other shortly.

We carried out all of the measurements of the bear and took blood, hair and faecal samples for DNA and parasite analysis. We also attached one of our GPS collars.

On waking up she was a little drowsy but finally she bounded off into the woods.

Now we just have to wait to see what signals we get back from her. Our aim was to collar three types of bear, a dominant male, an adult female and a juvenile male. One down, two to go…

On a different note a little walk into the hills last week also produced a good sprinkling of birds - two female and one male three-toed woodpeckers and a male capercaillie being the highlights. The lekking has not, of yet, started.

Last week we also caught sight of our first beavers, as darkness fell they appeared and before long all we could hear was the rasping of their teeth on wood. The dam has been partially rebuilt and the water level has already risen by about 6 inches (spread over an area of about two football pitches).

Brief   #8: March 2010

The temperatures here have risen considerably. The daytime temperature for the past few days have been over ten degrees, which is positively steamy. With the sun shining, nearly all of the snow in the lowland areas has gone and even the most frozen of the lakes are starting to thaw out. There is even a hint of green across some of the fields.

Further to last month, Boris has not been that active. After the initial surprise at him being around the cage it appeared that he went back to bed. Maybe his digestive system was not up to eating so many apples so soon. The temperatures also dropped considerably so he probably felt that a few more days of sleep were in order.

However in early March he showed his face again and was camera trapped near the cage. He was there for three consecutive days from the 9th to the 12th and finally on the morning of the 12th between 5 and 6 am we saw what we were waiting for…he overcame his fears and entered the cage fully on two occasions. With this new evidence and the rising temperatures we are now very hopeful that in the next few weeks we will have him where we want him.

Since the rise in temperatures everything has come to life. Most noticeable is the bird life, which seems to have exploded. From a few collared doves cooing in the towns last week to a full on dawn songfest. In the farmland surrounding Poprad we have seen plenty of Yellowhammers, Siskins, Greenfinches, Tree Sparrows and today a Great Grey Shrike. The woodpeckers, especially the Black Woodpecker, are also start to drum for their mates. It is only a matter of time before the Capercaillie and Black Grouse starting thinking about lekking.

The earlier sunrises and warm temperatures also tempted us to go and have a look to see if there was any beaver activity at the local lodge. This morning we left at 0630 and we were astounded to see that the second largest rodent in the world had indeed been extremely busy. The picture on the left was taken today - we were amazed at the size of the trees that these fellas take on. We didn’t see any actual beavers but that is understandable seeing as they seem to have been hard at work all night.

Brief   #7: The New Season - February 2010

The season is now open! We have heard reports that there is bear activity already. It is early in the year but we believe that the bears are stirring due to the lack of snow cover on the ground. Although the temperatures have been very cold there has been little precipitation. The snow acts like a blanket to keep the bears warm when they are asleep so a few days of warmish temperatures have melted much of their duvet…hence the movement.

We have two cages in situ; one is a manual release and one an automatic release. Even though the snow cover is less than normal the upper reaches of the valleys are still inaccessible so all of our focus is on the lower, manual release cage.

The unique situation whereby these large carnivores by design are primarily vegetarians means that they need to find easily digestible foodstuffs. Initially one particular bear that has been named Boris was sniffing around the winter deer feed, which is of little or no nutritional value to him. However on seeing the prints around the feed the TANAP rangers started putting out more nutritious dry maize – something that he is far more able to digest. On first estimates we believe Boris to be about 250kgs, it would be great to collar him as he is undoubtedly the dominant male of the area and his movements will give us a much better idea of his range (and maybe those of other males in the region), something which is unknown at present in the High Tatras.

The bear has been visiting the cage area regularly and the bait has been placed near to it. Now that he is familiar with the area the bait has been removed from around the cage and will only be placed inside. The cage at this stage is not armed so this is purely to habituate him to it. In the next few days we will stop using maize and start using last seasons apples, which are far more appealing to him.

We have placed an infrared camera trap in the cage and this will tell us how far he is going into it. At the first sign of him entering the cage completely the night watches will start from a hide about 20 metres away and the cage will be armed.

Boris is a wily male and he will be a challenge to catch therefore human visits to the area will be kept to an absolute minimum with a limited number of people putting the bait out and staying in the hide.

Brief   #6: The Rest of the Year

After the disappointment of Miso slipping his collar in April and the subsequent discovery of it in June there was one more opportunity to catch bears in 2009. This was the final hyperphagia, the period where bears eat as much as possible to sustain them through their winter sleep. The cages were frequented by a few bears including a hugely inquisitive mother and two cubs and at different times a large male. Although the mother and two cubs entered the cage freely we could do nothing as to catch one of the three would prove intensely stressful for the others and potentially very dangerous for us. So we watched helpless while they scoffed all of the apples.

The male was an altogether different proposition, he sat at the entrance pawing those apples he could reach, then he went round the back of the cage and pawed out what he could get from there - too clever for us.

So 2009 was a fruitless year for us however many lessons were learnt and we are optimistic for the spring when the bears will be really hungry after their sleep.

Brief   #5: Spring Time

Miso stayed at the den site until 25th April 2009 when he left in search of fresh grass to feed on.

Due to the collar being on the edge of its mobile network the signals we were receiving were infrequent. However they did seem to indicate that the bear was not moving much, if at all. We feared the worst that Miso had not survived, however we were hopeful that he may just have been hanging around the den, fearful of a big male nearby. The truth was, although unfortuante for the project, much less sinister.

Our hungry bear, having lost so much weight through the winter and being a small bear initially, had slipped the collar over his head and left it resting against a bush next to the den. It was not until June that we felt we could disturb the den site, and when we did, we found the collar propped up against a bush.

Brief   #4: Bear Monitoring

Miso’s collar has been sending us information since 6th October. After his release, he moved from Koprova to Ticha valley and stayed there for 2 days. At midnight on 8th October he crossed a tourist trail and moved west of the Ticha valley.

He traversed a ridge here, intensively feeding and in the morning of 14th he started to prepare his main den site. This one is at an altitude of 1300 m and it took him 8 days of intensive work to finish it.

After this one he prepared another 2 dens at altitudes of 1500m and 1700m, and then went looking for last bits of food in the Ticha valley, but appeared ready to begin his winter sleep. When he finished his final search for food, something clearly proved wrong with these denning sites. He travelled a further 2 km up the valley and found a new separate site, and immediately settled in. On 18th November the signals stopped moving and Miso entered his winter home.

Brief   #3: Collaring

We are delighted to announce the successful collaring of our first bear.

After more than one month of daily observations from our hideout and the monitoring of five bears who became regular visitors to the bait awaiting them in our cage, along came Miso.

  

Miso is a five year old brown bear, weighing in at 120kg, some 70 cm high and 130 cm from nose to tail.  Whilst not the largest bear which has visited us at the site, he became its most regular visitor and is an interesting subject for our first collar.  We have had ample opportunity to monitor and get to know the character of Miso, and thought he would be a good test for the first collar because his tender age ensures he will have no territory yet. As such it will be interesting to see how far he must roam to safely gather food, and at what point in his life he begins to establish himself with any kind of dominance.

  

Miso was caught on 6th October 2008 at 06.30 in the morning by a dedicated team of rangers and veterinary surgeon.  He was carefully sedated at 10.30am and samples were taken prior to the collar being attached.  Two hours later, at around 12.30, Miso awoke and disappeared into the forest.  A very excited team have since monitored his movements and locations using the highly effective GPS system which works in tune with the GSM collar worn by Miso. 

  

We have started to collect regular information which we can now start to include in our updates on this site.

 

Brief   #2: Monitoring bears at the cage

The bear research project is now entering a new phase, and a cage has been placed in the High Tatras park, on the Western side to capture our first bear for collaring. Our plan is to monitor the movements of animals around the cage with the door open until we see one large enough to collar, which is regularly feeding from the bait left inside. Our camera traps have been very successful in monitoring these movements without necessitating someone watching through the night from the nearby hideout.

   

A combination of apples and corn is being used to attract bears in a time when they are not easily distracted from the plentiful berries in the forest. However, the cage has been visited regularly by one young bear @80kg, has also been visited by a mother and cub, and just this week has attracted the attention of a larger bear over 150kg, and as such a good target for the collaring process. We are hoping to see this bear regularly over the coming days, and soon be able to capture it. This will only take place in daylight hours, once the bear has become very comfortable with the place. It will necessitate an overnight vigil by rangers and a vet so that the collaring can be done quickly and effectively early in the morning.

     

Let’s hope the next brief is to announce the first successful collaring.

 

Brief   #1: Beginnings

Two bear collars have just been delivered. Obviously we are restricted to trying to collar two bears but it is essential to try and catch different types of bear. There are three target types that we will try and catch. Firstly a dominant fully grown male bear. We have one in mind which seems to have a very defined territory. This will be ideal as it will give us an idea of the range of these animals. Secondly we would like to catch a sub-adult male bear to see how far it goes to settled into his own territory. It will also be ideal to see what, if any, interaction there is between the dominant male and the sub-adult male. Thirdly we would like to collar a female bear with no cubs. This will give us an idea of the range of the females. Specifically it will be interesting to find out if its range overlaps with two dominant males or if its range is wholly contained within a dominant male’s range.

As we get more collars we will also try and collar a ‘problem’ bear. It is thought that one of the reasons for the increasing incidence of problem bears behaviour could have been the result of a whirlwind in 2004 where many animals experienced huge changes to their natural environment, forcing them to find new sources of food and new areas in which to live. By collaring this bear, we hope to discover the reasons for the behaviour centred around scavenging rubbish bins. We hope that this research will provide us with some ideas for developing systems to reduce bear conflict with humans.

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