Human-Brown Bear Conflict Research and Projects in the KaçkarMountains, Artvin, Northeastern Turkey

In 2001, I realized that there was "something wrong" between people and brown bears in the Kaçkar Mountains in Turkey. While I was mountain climbing around high pastures and talking with the local beekeepers there, they always complained about brown bear damage and demonstrated their local preventive measures like placing beehives 20 meters above ground on a tree or wrapping metal sheets on the tree trunks. To study the subject, I had to wait until 2003 because the site is approximately 1200 km away from the university where I study. In the summer of 2003, I was hired as a field biologist for the GEF-II project of the Directory of Nature Conservation and National Parks (NCNP) in Camili-Artvin (The first and only Biosphere Reserve in Turkey for now). I have recorded many unusual incidents like bearsgathering around hazelnut trees in a village,entering dwellings by breaking down walls, raiding beehives placed on an elevated platform by using a ladder, depredating calves in a barn, and many others. I realized that the situation that I described above as "something wrong" was called human-bear conflict.


The recent escalations in human-bear interactions in northeastern Turkey have to our concern caused increased human caused bear mortality and bear-caused damage. Some funds are available from the Caucasian Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund for northeastern part of Turkey but brown bears or wildlife conflicts are not priority topics. As a result limited research and conservation projects can be carried out in the area. My first small project aimed at documenting human-bear conflict and monitoring of the brown bear population in the province of Artvin, Turkey.It was supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and METU. The project was carried out in fullcollaboration with the wildlife authorities and local interest groups. For the first time in Turkey, in September 2005, we fitted a wild brown bear with a radio collar.We have monitored the male bear for the last three years.

Detailed information on home ranges, habitat use, spatial and temporal behavior of brown bears will be studied and  thanks to the use of GPS collars. I have been monitoring brown bears for 8 years and I will continue doing so for years. We will investigate possible mechanisms for compensation and/or insurance for damage caused by wildlife. The project will also produce reports, press conferences, posters and a website to inform the public on matters related to wildlife.

After 10 years of hunting bans, brown bears were opened specifically to trophy hunting in late 2007. Five brown bears that were supposedly problem bears were hunted after using bait (such as a mule carcass) in Artvin. Several more bears werealsohunted in the Kastamonu and Karabük provinces with similar claims that the hunted bears were problem bears.  Recent interviews with local people confirmed my opinion that only hunting companies gained from killing bears since locals claimed no decline in damage, and perhaps even an increase in confrontations due to attraction of bears to previous bait sites. Our research and projects try to help locals, wildlife authorities, researchers and the conservation of bears. We also try to demonstrate how people and wildlife can live together in the northeastern part of Turkey.

This is a part of the article in IBAN May 2008 issue .