To all those who would like to learn more about Filip, Eryk and Iwo bears and other brown bears living in the Tatra Mountains, we encourage you to read the article "Summer of bears" [“Lato z niedźwiedziami”] in the fall issue of the quarterly "Tatry" published by the Tatrzański National Park. Within the GLOBE project, we work closely with the Tatrzański National Park and the Tatra experts Filip Zięba and Tomasz Zwijacz-Kozica support us not only in the Tatras, but also in the study of the Bieszczady bears.

Bones are a precious material which preserves valuable information, for instance on the animal’s diet. The collagen is extracted from small bone fragments and its stable isotope composition is analysed. Thanks to the bone material classified in museum collections, it is possible to go back in time and get information on the diet that bears had hundreds or thousands of years ago. We just started this exciting adventure.

Photo by Nuria Selva

The second brown bear trapped by the GLOBE team this autumn in the Bieszczady Mountains on the night of November 8/9th. It was a healthy subadult male, weighed 135 kg and he was named Djuro. He, as well as the other bears capturted within GLOBE project, was equipped with a GPS-GSM collar.

From the first data on Djuro's locations we know that two days after the capture he visited already three countries: Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia! It took him only 3 hours to cross two borders across the mountains. This highlights the transboundary character of the brown bear population in the Northern Carpathians.

Photo by Adam Wajrak

This autumn we have started the bear capturing season in the Bieszczady Mountains. With our GLOBE team, our guest, Prof. Djuro Huber (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia), and a support of Jacek Ficek (DVM), we managed to capture the first bear of the season. A young female called Aga, was captured on October, 28th. Aga weighted 92 kilograms. She has been equipped with a GPS collar which takes her position at given time intervals and then, using the GSM network, sends data on her locations to the base station. Results of blood tests showed that Aga is in a good condition, yet she is not fully prepared to the winter season. She will need to get more fat reserves necessary for denning.

photo by Eloy Revilla

We are pleased to inform that we have just produced GLOBE project promotional t-shirts. As we try to be consistent with the project goals and objectives, as well as with our standards and beliefs, our t-shirts are fully and truly EARTH POSITIVE :-) Our t-shirts are organic and ethically made, and manufactured solely using sustainable energy generated from wind and solar power.

"International Bear News", a Quarterly Newsletter of the International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA) and the IUCN/SSC Bear Specialist Group, in the latest volume (Summer 2014 Vol. 23 no.2) published a "News from the GLOBE – Disentangling the Impacts of Global Climate Change on Brown Bear Populations". We invite all those who want to know more about our project to read more.

Interesting interview with Dr Nuria Selva on her research on the brown bear (unfortunately only in Polish)