Slovenia Rejects Criticism of Bear Kill Quota
Date: 21-Mar-07
Country: SLOVENIA
Author: Marja Novak
Slovenia this month announced it was retaining an annual hunting quota of 100 bears, out of a total of 500-700, to limit the damage they do.
But the WWF said the quota was too high as the exact number of bears had not been properly determined. Local conservation groups were also outraged.
"People see the brown bear as a huge, impressive, kind and good-natured animal," Janez Kastelic, head of conservation policy at the Environment Ministry, told Reuters.
"But in reality, the bear is not a cuddly toy but a large beast."
He said Slovenia was trying to balance conserving bears and other species with protecting humans.
"Slovenia has managed to keep natural habitats with natural forest structure which enables conservation of the bear, wolf and lynx -- animals which are extinct in most other European states."
Bears have been a protected species in the small Alpine country since the 19th century, when numbers were low, but Kastelic said official hunting quotas were now necessary to cap the population.
"Without hunting, bears would spread very quickly because they do not have natural enemies," he said.
BEAR BOOM
Kastelic said the number of bears in Slovenia had risen to between 500 and 700 from between 450 and 550 in 2002, despite hunting quotas, and insisted that it was using widely accepted counting methods.
Almost all the bears are concentrated in dense woods in southern Slovenia, in an area smaller than the French island of Corsica.
"The density of the brown bear population in Slovenia is higher than anywhere else in Europe," he said.
"The population is spreading because hunting quotas are usually lower than recommended by experts because of pressure by conservation groups."
Kastelic said higher bear numbers would mean more damage to farms and more road accidents, as well as attacks on humans.
In the past few years Slovenia has registered about two bear attacks on humans per year, and local media say three people have died from bear attacks in the past 60 years.
Bears caused 198,000 euros (US$263,000) of damage to farms in 2005, mostly through attacks on sheep.
