The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania

23-25 November 2011

The analysis of the scores awarded to the
trophies of brown bear skulls in the South-
Eastern part of the Eastern Carpathians -
reflection on the wildlife management.
Ioan Mihai POP, Leonardo BERECZKY, Cosmin STNG, BERDE Lajos
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Target specie
Ursus arctos , Linnaeus, 1758
Conservation status (RO) : vulnerable
Romanian estimated population: approx. 6000
Hunted individuals: 250-350/year

The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Context of the study
High level of hunting quota in Covasna, Harghita and Vrancea county
Different ways of hunting bears (selective and nonselective)
304 shot bears during September 2007 until December 2010
304 scores for trophy
Lack of study regarding shot bears (304, meaning 5% of estimated bear
population at national level)
No impact study on how hunting activities are affecting the structure of bear
population
LIFEURSUS project - LIFE08/NAT/RO/000500
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Study area
Study area
covering
approx. 10 %
of the
estimated
brown bear
habitat at
national
level
and approx.
30% of the
estimated
brown bear
population
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Data collection

WHY THE SKULL?
Impossible to change the size of the trophy.
Recognized at international level by the International Hunting Committee as
the trophy indicates the size of a hunted individual.


Official reports of the game unit managers for each shot bears according to the
Romanian law for derogation of the Habitat Directive
Data for 50 females and 254 males, different estimated age from 2 years to 28
years


The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
HOW THE SCORES ARE
CALCULATED?
TS=L+w
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Results
Sex N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Age F 50 10.7000 5.13591 .72633
M 254 10.1378 4.69554 .29462
TS F 50 50.6460 3.82085 .54035
M 254 54.2885 5.32642 .33421
Estimated age and Trophy Score (TS)
killed bears
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
2
.
0
0
4
.
0
0
6
.
0
0
8
.
0
0
1
0
.
0
0
1
2
.
0
0
1
4
.
0
0
1
6
.
0
0
1
8
.
0
0
2
1
.
0
0
2
5
.
0
0
age
n
u
m
b
e
r
number
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Mean
.0000
10.0000
20.0000
30.0000
40.0000
50.0000
60.0000
70.0000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
age
s
i
z
e
Mean
Female
Male
Results
Variables: SEX, AGE, Trophy Score (TS)
Mean
.0000
10.0000
20.0000
30.0000
40.0000
50.0000
60.0000
70.0000
2
.
0
0
3
.
0
0
4
.
0
0
5
.
0
0
6
.
0
0
7
.
0
0
8
.
0
0
9
.
0
0
1
0
.
0
0
1
1
.
0
0
1
2
.
0
0
1
3
.
0
0
1
4
.
0
0
1
5
.
0
0
1
6
.
0
0
1
7
.
0
0
1
8
.
0
0
2
0
.
0
0
2
1
.
0
0
2
2
.
0
0
2
5
.
0
0
2
8
.
0
0
age
s
i
z
e
Mean
Range 2-6 10.7478 cm
Range 6-28 9.6522 cm
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Results
Month Mean Std.Deviation Range Skewness Variance Median
3.00 54.5895 4.10324 15.00 -.098 16.837 53.8000
4.00 54.7700 5.15088 26.40 -1.092 26.532 55.0000
5.00 54.6217 5.22963 24.00 -.608 27.349 54.0000
7.00 50.0000 . .00 . . 50.0000
9.00 53.4630 5.73660 20.20 .207 32.909 53.0000
10.00 52.7300 5.13088 28.90 -.474 26.326 52.9500
11.00 53.0533 6.11992 31.60 -.864 37.453 53.7000
12.00 54.7500 4.28283 16.40 -.766 18.343 55.5500
Total 53.6894 5.28008 32.00 -.637 27.879 54.0000
Mean
47.0000
48.0000
49.0000
50.0000
51.0000
52.0000
53.0000
54.0000
55.0000
56.0000
3.00 4.00 5.00 7.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00
Month
T
S
Mean
Mean of TS based on the hunting season
Bears shot in the spring season- 113
Bears shot in the autumn season- 190
Bears shot in the summer- 1
86% of the female were shot in autumn
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Results
l/L variation
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45
Male l/L
Geometric aspect of the skulls for male
and females presented as l/L
For 46 males l/L=0.57
For 14 females l/L=0.58

Female l/L variaton
0.48
0.5
0.52
0.54
0.56
0.58
0.6
0.62
0.64
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Female l/L
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Results

C
o
m
a
n
d
a
u

d
l
_
T
a
r
n
a
v
e
l
o
r

M
a
d
a
r
a
s

B
a
r
a
o
l
t

B
o
d
o
c

B
r
e
t
c
u
l
u
i

C
a
l
i
m
a
n
i

C
i
u
c
u
l
u
i

G
u
r
g
h
i
u
l
u
i

H
a
r
g
h
i
t
a

I
n
t
o
r
s
u
r
i
i

N
e
m
i
r
a

V
r
a
n
c
e
i

Mean 54.5105 54.220 54.905 54.030 52.957 53.036 54.400 53.430 54.021 53.761 52.853 50.735 51.126
N 19 29 37 23 21 11 13 10 23 55 13 14 19
Std. Deviation 3.22437 5.05459 5.13879 5.55750 5.14942 3.23829 3.89957 6.38262 4.49979 5.02930 6.13455 9.06885 5.66812
Mean of TS on geographical units
Mean
48.0000
49.0000
50.0000
51.0000
52.0000
53.0000
54.0000
55.0000
56.0000
C
o
m
a
n
d
a
u
d
l
_
T
a
r
n
a
v
e
l
o
r
M
a
d
a
r
a
s
B
a
r
a
o
l
t
B
o
d
o
c
B
r
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t
c
u
l
u
i
C
a
l
im
a
n
i
C
i
u
c
u
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i
G
u
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g
h
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l
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i
H
a
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g
h
i
t
a
I
n
t
o
r
s
u
r
i
i
N
e
m
i
r
a
V
r
a
n
c
e
i
Mean
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Conclusions
The increase of the skull is higher in the first six seven years of life
Female have a smaller skull than males (approx. 10% smaller)
The increase of the skulls of male and females are similar in the first
years, than the skull of the males have a bigger increase
There are not significant differences between the geometric report
Width/Length in females and males skull
Hunting has a selective character in the spring oriented towards big
individuals (hunting at or near feeding points) and a random character
in the autumn (in relation to size and sex)
There are no significant differences between the skull size in different
geographical areas
In relation to the TS there are differences between hunting management

The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Recommendations
Brown bear hunting should be a management tool for Romanian Brown
bear population, but as a management tool the random character should
be reduced
Hunting has to be oriented towards maintaining a normal structure of
the population and not oriented towards trophy size (approx. 35% of the
killed individuals were adults, mature individuals over 10 years old)
Reducing the age of hunted individuals, protecting the adult and old
individuals
Shot animals should be examined and measured to extract all the useful
information regarding brown bear biology and ecology
The age should be more precisely determined to improve the derogation
reports to the EU
The Third Annual Zoological Congress of Grigore Antipa Museum Bucharest, Romania
23-25 November 2011
Thank you
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