Northern Dinarics

The focus area for this study site will be on the forested landscapes that constitute the border between Slovenia and Croatia. This represents one of the most intact assemblages of large mammals in Europe with wolves, bears and lynx all present, along with red deer, roe deer and wild boar.

Most of the area is subject to hunter harvest under a system where hunting clubs rent hunting rights to hunt on public land. Our focus will be on large mammals, especially brown bears which are hunted as a valuable game species in Croatia, and are controlled under a controversial derogation from the EU’s habitats directive in Slovenia.
 

The need for cooperation between an EU and a non-EU country that share a population and the fact that both countries have been subject to temporary international bans on trophy export in recent years illustrates some of the interesting aspects of this controversial harvest.
 

Slovenia is part of the EU where bears are recognized as a protected species and bear hunting is only allowed to control conflicts. In Croatia however, bears are considered a game species and hunting is organized for trophies. Assuming the same biological system (and model), there is the opportunity to investigate the effect of different management systems on the sustainability of bear hunting.