Brown bear attacks on humans: a worldwide perspective.

The increasing trend of large carnivore attacks on humans not only raises human safety concerns but may also undermine large carnivore conservation efforts. Although rare, attacks by brown bears Ursus arctos are also on the rise and, although several studies have addressed this issue at local scales, information is lacking on a worldwide scale. Here, we investigated brown bear attacks (n = 664) on humans between 2000 and 2015 across most of the range inhabited by the species: North America (n = 183), Europe (n = 291), and East (n = 190). When the attacks occurred, half of the people were engaged in leisure activities and the main scenario was an encounter with a female with cubs. Attacks have increased significantly over time and were more frequent at high bear and low human population densities. There was no significant difference in the number of attacks between continents or between countries with different hunting practices. Understanding global patterns of bear attacks can help reduce dangerous encounters and, consequently, is crucial for informing wildlife managers and the public about appropriate measures to reduce this kind of conflicts in bear country.

Noninvasive genetic tracking of the endangered Pyrenean brown bear population.

Pyrenean brown bears Ursus arctos are threatened with extinction. Management efforts to preserve this population require a comprehensive knowledge of the number and sex of the remaining individuals and their respective home ranges. This goal has been achieved using a combination of noninvasive genetic sampling of hair and faeces collected in the field and corresponding track size data. Genotypic data were collected at 24 microsatellite loci using a rigorous multiple-tubes approach to avoid genotyping errors associated with low quantities of DNA. Based on field and genetic data, the Pyrenean population was shown to be composed at least of one yearling, three adult males, and one adult female. These data indicate that extinction of the Pyrenean brown bear population is imminent without population augmentation. To preserve the remaining Pyrenean gene pool and increase genetic diversity, we suggest that managers consider population augmentation using only females. This study demonstrates that comprehensive knowledge of endangered small populations of mammals can be obtained using noninvasive genetic sampling.