Telemetry as a Tool to Study Spatial Behaviour and Patterns of Brown Bears as Affected by the Newly Constructed Egnatia Highway – N. Pindos - Greece

Abstract

Throughout the world, traffic volumes have increased markedly in the past two decades (United Nations 1992) and the increasing area occupied by recently constructed roads is affecting wildlife populations in the EU from 1990 to 1998 circa 33.000 ha of landscape (10ha daily) have been used and occupied for transportation infrastructure development purposes. The average surface of undisturbed (by transportation infrastructure) continuous landscape ranges from 20 km2 in Belgium to 600 km2 in Finland with an EU average of 130 km2 (ΕΕΑ, 2001). For many mammal populations, the main demonstrated impact of roads to date has been in terms of increased disturbance or mortality. Avoidance of otherwise suitable habitats in close proximity to roads has been shown to occur for brown bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Canis lupus) in the U.S.A. (McLellan and Shackleton 1988, Mace et al. 1996, Mech et al. 1988). For some mammal species, roads have been shown to act also as a considerable barrier to dispersal (Mader 1984). Roads can therefore have a significant effect in fragmenting wildlife populations and eventually lead them to local extinction (Fahrig and Merriam 1994). Increased awareness of environmental problems caused by infrastructure construction has moved engineers, ecologists and policy makers to develop planning concepts to deal with the impacts on nature and landscape. If avoidance of a certain project is not feasible, mitigation measures can be undertaken as a second planning concept.