Initial Results of Research into Brown Bear Timber Damage (Ursus arctos) in Silver Fir (Abies alba) Forests in Croatia

The paper analyzes the inventories of trees debarked by the brown bear. Sample plots were established in mixed beech-fir forests in the mountainous part of western Croatia (an area in which such type of damage is relatively frequent). The method of damaging trees is similar to that incurred by the black bear in North America and Japan. Consequently, the cause of tree damage cannot be attributed to bears marking their territory. Bears damage trees by peeling the bark off the stem. The stem and the inner part (phloem) of the bark show teeth marks. The bark from the damaged trees is scattered around the trees. The brown bear almost exclusively damaged silver fir trees of larger breast diameters growing in uneven-aged stands (the diameter classes of damaged trees range from 22.5 to 77.5 cm, with the damage degree culminating at 42.5 cm). Distribution of the total number of trees, as well as the number of fir trees in the sample plots showed very high correlation with the theoretical distribution (Liocourt curve) typical of a beech-fir stand (R2=0.9629; p<0.0001; R2=0.93284; p