Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park: 11 Marsican bear cubs were born in 2018
Environment — di Lorenzo Brenna
According to the park, this is a very positive result for this rare and threatened bear subspecies.
Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park: 11 Marsican bear cubs were born in 2018
According to the park, this is a very positive result for this rare and threatened bear subspecies.
Less than three months ago, around 6 per cent of the world population of the Marsican brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus), one of the rarest mammals on the planet, died in an absurd and unjustifiable way, drowned in a water-collection tank, further compromising the future of this bear subspecies endemic to central Italy. The year 2018, however, also brought good news for these animals: according to the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, eleven Marsican bear cubs were born in 2018.
Sono 11 i cuccioli di orso marsicano contati nel 2018 nel Parco. | Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise parcoabruzzo.it/dettaglio.php?… #parcoabruzzo #orso
A positive year
Monitoring carried out in the protected area — the only place in the world where these animals survive, once widespread across all the Apennine regions — revealed that at least four female Marsican bears reproduced this year. The park authority, in a press release, expressed its satisfaction with this breeding season. "The result is very positive, given that this is the third consecutive year in which ten to twelve newborns have been observed in the population."
Read also:
4 females for 11 cubs
The census, carried out by combining direct observations, reports and data collected through the use of camera traps, highlighted the presence of four family units. These family groups, distributed throughout the park area, consist of three females with three cubs each and one female with two cubs. The number of newborns is therefore encouraging and, unlike in previous monitoring years, has reached high figures even though it did not follow years of exceptionally abundant beech mast production — of which bears are very fond — to which the highest productivity values are usually linked. "This allows us to say that the park area offers good levels of food productivity," the press release reads, "and that, despite the low numbers of bears, there is a significant reserve of adult females within the population."
The Marsican bear is still in danger
This brown bear subspecies, genetically differentiated from Alpine bears, is nonetheless still at serious risk of extinction, given that the population numbers just fifty to fifty-five individuals. Among the causes of its decline is an extremely low reproductive rate: an analysis of data collected over the past ten years has shown that a female, which reproduces only every 3–4 years, gives birth to an average of 0.2 cubs per year.
There are too few females
The main problem, however, is the scarcity of females of reproductive age — currently around fifteen — and the survival of the population depends on their wellbeing. "The future of the bear depends largely on the survival of adult females and to a lesser extent on the survival of cubs: in the event of the death of an adult female, more than twelve years are needed before a female cub can take her place." The most important action for the conservation of the Marsican bear is therefore to reduce the mortality of adult females caused directly or indirectly by humans. "It is realistic to assume that the Marsican bear will be able to escape the real risk of extinction if it proves possible to increase, even slightly, the survival rate of adult females," said the park president, Antonio Carrara. "On this, the park must ensure maximum commitment."