Djuro Huber

• Prof. dr. Djuro Huber
• Professor emeritus at University of Zagreb

Biotic interactions are expected to influence species' responses to global changes, but they are rarely considered across broad spatial extents. Abiotic factors are thought to operate at larger spatial scales, while biotic factors, such as species interactions, are considered more important at local scales within communities, in part because of the...

The recovery of wolves (Canis lupus) across Europe is a notable conservation success in a region with extensive human alteration of landscapes and high human population densities. We provide a comprehensive update on wolf populations in Europe, estimated at over 21,500 individuals by 2022, representing a 58% increase over the past decade. Despite t...

Three‐quarters of the planet's land surface has been altered by humans, with consequences for animal ecology, movements and related ecosystem functioning. Species often occupy wide geographical ranges with contrasting human disturbance and environmental conditions, yet, limited data availability across species' ranges has constrained our understand...

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group‐level processes such as subgroup formation and fission–fusion dynamics. Although critical t...

Three-quarters of the planets land surface has been altered by humans, with consequences for animal ecology, movements and related ecosystem functioning. Species often occupy wide geographical ranges with contrasting human disturbance and environmental conditions, yet, limited data availability across species ranges has constrained our understandin...

The report Large carnivore distribution maps and population updates 2017 – 2022/23 is based on the latest information and provides the best available overview of brown bear (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), wolf (Canis lupus), golden jackal (Canis aureus), and wolverine (Gulo gulo) distributions and population sizes at a European continent...

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable with no c...

Biotic interactions are expected to influence species' responses to climate change, but they are usually not included when predicting future range shifts. We assessed the importance of biotic interactions to understand future consequences of climate and land use change for biodiversity using as a model system the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Europe...

Humans are responsible for over a quarter of all wildlife mortality events across the globe. The pressure this puts on wildlife populations contributes to the decline of many at-risk species. To minimize human-caused mortality and reverse population declines in species across the world, we first need to know where these events are happening or like...

Management of free-ranging wildlife may include the capture of animals, with the implication that the capture process is optimized, both logistically and economically and in a way that avoids animal suffering, injury or accidental mortality. Studies targeting the optimization of trapping techniques are scarce, especially when focusing on large Euro...

The Balkan Peninsula and the Dinaric Mountains possess extraordinary biodiversity and support one of the largest and most diverse wolf (Canis lupus) populations in Europe. Results obtained with diverse genetic markers show west-east substructure, also seen in various other species, despite the absence of obvious barriers to movement. However, the s...

Sharing space with large carnivores on a human-dominated continent like Europe results in multiple conflictful interactions with human interests, of which depredation on livestock is the most widespread. We conducted an analysis of the impact by all four European large carnivores on sheep farming in 10 European countries, during the period 2010-201...

This reference provids a link to the Dryard repository with shapefiles at 10 x 10 km resolution for the distribution of Brown bear, Eurasian lynx, Grey wolf, and Wolverine for the period 2012 - 2016.

Studying how animals interact with their environment is fundamental to informing conservation and management efforts, especially when examining large, wide-ranging carnivores in human-dominated landscapes. We hypothesized that the home ranges of bears are configured to exploit supplemental food (corn) and avoid people. In 2004–2016, we tracked 10 b...

Seasonal migrations (i.e. seasonal round‐trips between disjunct areas) have been rarely documented for large carnivores. The Dinaric‐Pindos brown bear (Ursus arctos) population is the third largest in Europe, but little information is currently available on individual movement patterns. We studied movement patterns by 12 GPS‐collared adult and suba...

Conflicts between humans and bears have occurred since prehistory. Through time, the catalogue of human–bear conflicts (HBC) has been changing depending on the values and needs of human societies and their interactions with bears. Even today, conflict situations vary among the eight species of bears and geographically across these species’ ranges....

Bears have fascinated people since ancient times. The relationship between bears and humans dates back thousands of years, during which time we have also competed with bears for shelter and food. In modern times, bears have come under pressure through encroachment on their habitats, climate change, and illegal trade in their body parts, including t...

Bears have fascinated people since ancient times. The relationship between bears and humans dates back thousands of years, during which time we have also competed with bears for shelter and food. In modern times, bears have come under pressure through encroachment on their habitats, climate change, and illegal trade in their body parts, including t...

Bears have fascinated people since ancient times. The relationship between bears and humans dates back thousands of years, during which time we have also competed with bears for shelter and food. In modern times, bears have come under pressure through encroachment on their habitats, climate change, and illegal trade in their body parts, including t...

This guidance reviews the methods for estimating relative abundance and density in nine large European wild carnivore species, somerepresenting relevant health concerns andprovides insights on how to obtain reliable estimations by using those methods. On a local scale, the appropriate method should take into accountthe characteristics of the study...

Following historical restrictions to isolated and patchy populations, large carnivores like the brown bear Ursus arctos are recolonizing areas of their historical range in Europe. This process is of particular interest in the Alps and the Dinaric Mountains in Central Europe, the largest mountain range in the continent and of transboundary conservat...

Monitoring arterial blood pressure (BP), represents a more accurate evaluation of hemodynamics than heart rate alone and is essential for preventing and treating intra- and post-operative complications in wildlife chemical immobilization.The objectives of the study were to test the correlation between standard oscillometry and Korotkoff's technique...

We investigated the level of five non-essential metal(loid)s (As, Cd, Hg, Tl, Pb) and nine essential metals (Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Se, Mo) in hair and blood components of captive and free-ranging European brown bear populations in Croatia and Poland. Metal(loid) associations with biomarkers of oxidative stress (superoxide dismutase, SOD; glut...

Human–bear conflicts resulting from livestock depredation and crop use are a common threat to the brown bear Ursus arctos throughout its range. Understanding these conflicts requires the recording and categorization of incidents, assessment of their geographical distribution and frequency, and documentation of the financial costs and the presence o...

In this study, we aimed to provide a neuroanatomy atlas derived from crosssectional and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the encephalon of the brown bear (Ursus arctos). A postmortem brain analysis using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI –1,5T; a high-resolution submillimeter three-dimensional T1-3D FFE) and crosssectional macroscopic anatomy meth...

The increasing trend of large carnivore attacks on humans not only raises human safety concerns but may also undermine large carnivore conservation efforts. Although rare, attacks by brown bears Ursus arctos are also on the rise and, although several studies have addressed this issue at local scales, information is lacking on a worldwide scale. Her...

Anthropogenic hybridization is widely perceived as a threat to the conservation of biodiversity. Nevertheless, to date, relevant policy and management interventions are unresolved and highly convoluted. While this is due to the inherent complexity of the issue, we hereby hypothesize that a lack of agreement concerning management goals and approache...

The study aimed to determine reproductive span by investigation of the ovarian structures in young and elderly captive brown bear females (Ursus arctos). The ovaries of two 2-year-old females were obtained by ovariectomy and during the necropsies of 31 and 36 year old individuals. All the obtained ovaries were examined macroscopically and histologi...

Since the biggest threat to large carnivore survival is habitat fragmentation and loss, the best approach for reduction and avoidance of individual and cumulative impacts is appropriate spatial positioning of windfarms and individual wind turbines. Therefore the Manual propose an assessment methodology based on the sensitivity map (Fig 1), which wa...

Pan-European legislation stimulates international cooperation to overarching challenges of large carnivore management across jurisdictions. We present an analysis for current transboundary brown bear (Ursus arctos) population management in Croatia and Slovenia. Slovenia's bear management attempts aimed to reduce human-bear conflicts, by limiting th...

Habitat loss and fragmentation can severely hamper species ability to undertake long-distance movements (e.g. dispersal, migration), impeding both gene ow and access to critical habitat. In some European brown bear populations, the need for increasing pre-wintering food intake can lead to individual migration-like movement patterns, with animals co...

Large carnivores are challenging to manage, partly because they are wide-ranging and therefore have large distribution ranges that may cross political or administrative boundaries. Moreover, large carnivores are conflict prone in relation with some human activities, which results in diverse conservation and management policies. The conservation and...

life dinalp bear - action a3 Action A3: Analysis of spatial connectivity and preparation of environmental impact assessment guidelines 1 Methodological design (but for section 2.7), conducted the analyses, interpreted the results, and wrote the report. 2 Methodological design for section 2.7, interpreted the results, and commented on the report.

We explored the long-term accumulation of aluminum, strontium, cadmium and lead in the compact and trabecular bone of the femoral epiphysis, metaphysis and diaphysis in 41 brown bears (Ursus arctos) from Croatia. Also, we assessed their influence on macro and trace elements (sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, cobalt...

Wolf-dog hybridization is considered as one of the main threats for wolf conservation since the admixture and introgression of domestic genes may disrupt local adaptations and threaten the long term survival of wild wolf populations. We investigated the occurrence of wolf-dog hybridization in Croatia by analyzing a panel of 12 autosomal microsatell...

Distribution of environmental lead in brown bear body compartments

Reproductive control is regularly implemented in bear facilities to prevent crowding of enclosures and surplus animals. Ovariectomy may represent an efficient method of sterilizing bears yet has not been reported in the literature. A 73 kg female brown bear, age two years and three months, was anesthetized for ovariectomy with tiletamin and zolazep...

The influence of reproductive and (early) life stages on toxic metal levels was investigated in the brown bear (Ursus arctos), the largest mammalian predator species in Croatia. The purpose was to examine critical clusters in a population that might be at a higher risk of adverse health effects caused by metals as environmental contaminants. Levels...

The mitigation of the conflicts associated to livestock predation and agriculture damage is pivotal for the conservation of large carnivores in Europe. Aiming to identify the management strategies that more efficiently mitigate these conflicts, we made a critical review of the current policies to manage damage made by brown bears, lynx, wolves and...

The lancet liver fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum occurs in various domestic (sheep, goats, cattle, horses, rabbits, dogs) and wild (deer, wild boar, buffalo, camels) mammals and humans around the globe. Since reports of D. dendriticum in large carnivores are limited, like in the brown bear (Ursus arctos), we performed study to investigate the presen...

Tissue element investigations of apex terrestrial mammals are very scarce in Europe. We quantified 16 essential and non-essential elements in the kidney cortex, liver and muscle tissue of 467 brown bears (Ursus arctos), 125 grey wolves (Canis lupus), one Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and three golden jackals (Canis aureus) from Croatia by inductively c...

Wolves (Canis lupus) and moose (Alces americanus) have been studied since 1958 on 540-squarekilometer Isle Royale National Park, in Lake Superior. Wolves arrived there across the ice around 1949, and the population once increased to about 50, averaging about 25 annually (Mech 1966, Jordan et al. 1967, Vucetich and Peterson 2009). However, for vario...

The European brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) is the largest terrestrial mammal in Croatia. Although known as omnivorous species, almost 95% of the brown bear's diet in Croatia consists of plants. Maize is the important part of bear's diet due to its availability at supplemental feeding sites and the bear's opportunistic feeding habits. This supplement...

Context The preservation of denning habitat is paramount to the recovery of threatened bear populations because of the effect that den site disturbance can have on cub mortality. Understanding habitat suitability for denning can allow management efforts to be directed towards the regions where conservation interventions would be most effective. Ai...

Introduction of a new species, the ferret (Mustela putorius furo), in pathomorphological diagnostics-7 years of Croatian experience. Vet. arhiv 87, 317-331, 2017. ABstrAct Since ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) were first introduced into Croatia as pets around 15 years ago, their popularity and number has risen continuously. This increase has been m...

OPEN ACCESS FULL TEXT AT: http://rdcu.be/qaQl ---------- In order to meet carbon reduction targets, many nations are greatly expanding their wind power capacity. However, wind farm infrastructure potentially harms wildlife, and we must therefore find ways to balance clean energy demands with the need to protect wildlife. Wide-ranging carnivores liv...

The composition of adipose tissue in brown bears (Ursus arctos) is highly variable and depends on an individual’s feeding habits. Fatty acid composition of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) may provide insight into brown bear feeding habits, for which data are scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the lipid composition of SAT and variation...

Levels of elements in brown bear (Ursus arctos) blood are unknown. Previously, we discovered that brown bears in Croatia have the highest tissue levels of toxic metals among hunted terrestrial wild mammals. However, associations with other related biomarkers of exposure and/or effect have not been studied. Considering that oxidative stress has been...

The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe has seen many countries rush to construct border security fencing to divert or control the flow of people. This follows a trend of border fence construction across Eurasia during the post-9/11 era. This development has gone largely unnoticed by conservation biologists during an era in which, ironically, transbou...

Within scope of the LIFE DINALP BEAR project a large scale survey of health and reproductive status of brown bear population has started. Aims of the designed study were to investigate effects of different parasitological and microbiological (bacteria, viruses, fungi) agents on health of individual bear, bear population and public health as well. E...

1. Wildlife damage to human property threatens human–wildlife coexistence. Conflicts arising from wildlife damage in intensively managed landscapes often undermine conservation efforts, making damage mitigation and compensation of special concern for wildlife conservation. However, the mechanisms underlying the occurrence of damage and claims at la...

The combination of intensive persecution, habitat loss and prey deficiency led to the extinction of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Dinaric Mountains at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1973, the population was re-established by reintroducing animals from the Slovakian Carpathian Mountains into Slovenia, from where the animals spread into Cro...

Bears undergo some significant changes reflected in blood values during winter season. The most significant are reduced urea and increased creatinine, by some authors considered to be physiological indicators of hibernation. Studied group of six captive brown bears (Ursus arctos) showed decreased activity in winter but were accepting food and walke...

Posljednjih 11 godina Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode (DZZP) današnja Agencija za okoliš i prirodu (HAOP), uz pomoć znanstvenika s Veterinarskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, a za potrebe provedbe Plana upravljanja vukom, izrađuje godišnja Izvješća o stanju populacije vuka. Prilikom procjena brojnosti populacije koriste se svi dostupni podaci o...

GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSMENT OF WIND FARMS IMPACT ON LARGE CARNIVORES J. Kusak 1 , Đ. Huber 1 , N. Trenc 2 , J. Jeremić 2 , S. Desnica 2 1 Biology Department of Veterinary Faculty, University of Zagreb, Zagreb 2 State Institute for Nature Protection, Zagreb The Dinaric mountain range due to its wind potential is the preferred area for wind farm dev...

In this pilot study, we investigated levels of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the adipose tissues of two free-ranging terrestrial carnivores from Croatia sampled in 2010 and 2011: the brown bear (Ursus arctos; N=32) and the grey wolf (Canis lupus; N=29). Concentrations of ∑OCPs and ΣPCBs ranged from 0.45 to...

Ninety-four European brown bear (Ursus arctos) faecal samples, collected in three counties of Croatia, wereexamined for the presence of gastrointestinal parasites. Five genera were identifi ed, including the nematodesBaylisascaris transfuga and Syngamus sp., and the protozoan enteropathogens Cryptosporidium sp., Eimeriasp., and Giardia sp. Ancylost...

Shape files of current and historical distribution maps of large carnivore species in Europe. Also available from http://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.986mp

The conservation of large carnivores is a formidable challenge for biodiversity conservation. Using a data set on the past and current status of brown bears (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), gray wolves (Canis lupus), and wolverines (Gulo gulo) in European countries, we show that roughly one-third of mainland Europe hosts at least one larg...

Planom upravljanja vukom u Hrvatskoj izrađenim u suradnji svih interesnih skupina, te usvojenim kao službeni dokumenti od strane nadležnog Ministarstva propisana je uspostava nacionalnog sustava praćenja populacija vuka kao osnovu za planiranje zaštite i upravljanja. Također, propisano je i godišnje izrađivanje Izvješća o stanju populacije vuka na...

Over the past ten years, the State Institute for Nature Protection (SINP), in cooperation with scientists from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb (FVM), has been drafting the annual Report on the status of the wolf population, for the purposes of implementation of the Wolf Management Plan. The assessment of the abundance of th...

Muscle (n = 111), liver (n = 111), and kidney cortex (n = 101) samples from brown bears (Ursus arctos) were collected in the 2009 and 2010 hunting seasons in Croatia and analysed for selenium (Se), cadmium (Cd), and total mercury (Hg). The aim was to assess the levels of these elements according to age, sex, and season of collection, and to investi...