As bears have more and more descended into human settlements throughout a number of provinces in Türkiye, an professional recommends the safety of meals assets in bears’ pure habitats to mitigate such incidents.
Professor Cumhur Güngöroğlu, from Karabük University’s Faculty of Forestry and the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, burdened the significance of safeguarding meals assets for bears of their pure environments. He emphasised that bears are among the many largest predators in Türkiye and play a significant position within the ecosystem.
Bears belong to the omnivore group within the meals chain, with extremely developed senses of scent and wide-ranging motion capabilities. Güngöroğlu identified that bears make use of their eager sense of scent to find meals, and if their feeding areas within the forest lack ample meals assets, they’ll comply with the scent and enterprise into human-populated areas.
Urban areas present potential meals sources for bears, main them to enterprise nearer to cities to fulfill their very own dietary wants and people of their cubs. For occasion, the latest look of a bear household within the metropolis middle of Karabük was attributed to adjustments of their habitat because of the presence of bears within the forest.
Karabük’s metropolis middle is intently related to forests, making it a brief distance from the forest to the town. Additionally, meals waste and different meals sources across the metropolis can entice bears.
Güngöroğlu supplied suggestions to forestall bear incursions into human settlements. He advocated for forest administration and the event of a bear administration plan that may defend important meals assets for bears, together with seed crops, oily crops, most well-liked meals sources, particular plant species and mushroom-rich areas.
He additional underscored the significance of not disturbing bears of their pure habitats, as disturbances can cause them to search new feeding areas. Güngöroğlu defined that bears enter a part known as hyperphagia (overeating) for 2 to a few months after the summer season, throughout which they require an extreme quantity of diet earlier than hibernation begins. To stop encounters with people throughout this era, he recommended leaving supplementary meals within the bears’ pure habitats.
The professional warned in opposition to utilizing firearms when encountering bears, as it could actually have harmful penalties and lead to important fines of TL 50,000 ($1,790). He additionally famous that the mushroom season aligns with the bears’ hyperphagia part, creating a better likelihood of bear encounters in forested areas the place individuals go to gather mushrooms. To decrease the chance of encounters, Güngöroğlu suggested in opposition to gathering mushrooms alone and making noise to alert bears to human presence.
Source: www.dailysabah.com