70 Bears to Be Killed in Slovenia
The Slovenian Environment Ministry has approved a wild bear kill of 70 animals. The country has between 430 and 480 bears according to one estimate.
Some environmentalists put the number slightly lower. In 2008 the Environment Ministry approved a kill of 75, and in 2007 it was 100. In 2006 it was also 100. That will make 345 wild bears killed in the last four years. The number of cubs born each year is estimated at 60-90.
(Brown bears in Slovenia are a protected species.)
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For 2009, 70 out of 430 bears killed will make an annual mortality rate of 16% and 480 bears is 14%. However, it was reported on the site for Radio Free Europe that the international standard for maintaining stability is only 10%, ” According to international norms, 10 percent of the bear population can be hunted annually to maintain a healthy stock.” If that percentage is correct, only 43 or 48 bears should be available for culling. So why were 100 bears approved for killing in 2007 and in 2006, a rate of at least 20 percent?
The number of bears killed due to government quotas is not the whole of the bear mortality rate. Each year 20-40 are killed when they are hit by cars and trains. A 2006 report from the World Wildlife Fund noted a dramatic difference in the number of government approved bear kills from the time that Slovenia joined the European Union. In 2001 a 59 bear kill was authorized, and in 2002 the number was 116. The overall bear population had remained the same, but the kill number was nearly doubled. That year the International Association for Bear Research and Management wrote a letter to the Slovenian government in which they stated, “We are very concerned that the Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food has allowed a harvest that is almost three times the sustainable level based on best available data.”
If bears could only communicate, would they like to have a say?
Why??? What is to be gained from culling these beautiful bears…or any other creatures for that matter…OMG if the four legged animals of this earth were to be given a gun…I think we would be in big trouble!!!!!MMMMM should make us all think!!!!
Why??? What is to be gained from culling these beautiful bears…or any other creatures for that matter…OMG if the four legged animals of this earth were to be given a gun…I think we would be in big trouble!!!!!MMMMM should make us all think!!!
Why? You would not ask that if u lived here. Du you know the size of Slovenia? There are 500 bears on such a small area. Every year there are a a couple of people killed by a brown bear. I wonder if you would think like that if you saw a bear on the street a couple of metres from your front door. I also don’t like to see this beutiful animals beeing killed but this is yust something that has to be done.
“Every year there are a a couple of people killed by a brown bear.”
This statement is not true at all. And even in the extremely rare case of a bear attacking a human, it is usually because the person surprised the bear, or the bear is a female with cubs and the person gets too close.
Bears have killed only 3 people in Slovenia in the last 45 years.
forests.org/archive/europe/bearaman.htm
ok mayby i am wrong about the kills, but at least 3 attacks which reasulted in heavy mutilation happened in 60 km radius from my home. And i don’t need to hear that they are not agressive. But with the numbers of the bears attacks are in inevitable. And John if u quouted an article at least read it… You will se how serious is the situation. Would u be so concerned about the bear if it would be your children who face them in the way to school?
Just another quote from the article that says it all: “A bear looks so lovely to those living in towns, but if you face one almost every day you begin to hate it,” Mohoric said.
That’s funny. There aren’t any bears facing children on the way to school!
And no one has to face a bear every day.
Bears DON’T kill humans, unless the humans are doing something wrong.
Bear education is what is sorely lacking in these situations.
I live in Slovenia and number of incidents with those beautiful animals rise. Farmers and their animals suffer most. We could see many times very bloody pictures in newspapers. Domestic animals so far. Sheep, goats, horses, cattle so far. Government pays damage to the farmers.
The bear population is growing and bears have no natural predators. Bears at age 3-4 years wants to find their new territory and could came into villages and many people in rural areas saw them right beside their homes.
Estimated number of bears vary a lot. From 400 to 800. Depends who make this estimation
So killing about 100 bears/year is necessary to keep the population strong and under control.
This shouldn’t be political issue!
“The situation is so critical that in some villages kids need a bus to take them to school only a kilometre or so away because they run into a bear virtually every day,” Maksimilijan Mohoric, state secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Reuters. Is he lying? And educate me.. what does a child need to do when he faces a 400kg mother bear when he is going to school? Btw have u ever even seen a bear?