Ljubljana related

08 Jul 2021, 12:30 PM

STA, 8 July 2021 - Slovenian authorities dealt with more incidents of damage caused by bears and fewer by wolves in January-June compared to the same six-month period last year, while the total damage is lower. A total of 128 bears were culled in this period, a significant rise from a total of 99 culled in the entire 2020.

In the first six months of 2021, authorities dealt with 120 cases of damage caused by brown bears and 80 cases of damage caused by wolves. Data the STA obtained from the Slovenian Forest Service shows the total damage is estimated at just under EUR 90,000.

In the first six months of last year, there were 86 such events linked to bears and 143 to wolves, with the total damage estimated at EUR 112,000.

Both last year and this year, the most damage was caused in the region of Bela Krajina, south-east, and in the area around Kočevje, south.

128 bears have been culled this year, of which 112 were shot under a permit issued by the Slovenian Environment Agency, seven were shot under individual culling permits, and the rest died in railway or road accidents.

Only four wolves have been culled so far this year - two were shot under individual permits, one was killed on the road, and one is suspected to have been poached. Last year, a total of 99 brown bears and 14 wolves or wolf-dog hybrids were culled, according to the Forest Service data.

The Forest service estimates that more than 1,000 bears live in Slovenia. The number of wolves has been estimated at 113 for the 2019/20 season, and the estimate for the 2020/21 season will be known in the autumn.

14 Jun 2020, 13:36 PM

STA, 12 June 2020 - The Agency for the Environment has issued a permit for the culling of 115 brown bears until September this year across multiple parts of Slovenia that are home to a large brown bear population.

Culling has long been the main way in which the Slovenian brown bear population has been kept in check and the Environment Agency said on Friday there was "no other satisfactory possibility" and that the cull "does not harm the preservation of the favourable state of the population".

The cull will be undertaken to mitigate human-bear conflicts in areas where the density of the bear population is high. According to the agency's data, in some parts of south Slovenia densities can be as high as one animal per two square kilometres, among the highest in the world.

Human-bear conflicts have been on the rise in recent years, in particular in areas with a high density of bears and in the vicinity of human settlements. Without intervention, conflicts would only increase.

The latest estimates, for 2020, put Slovenia's brown bear population, which is a part of a large Dinaric population that stretches across Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, at 860-1,120 animals, the agency said.

Brown bear culling has long been a controversial measure and environmentalists have been fighting it in court year after year.

But the scientific consensus is that the population is thriving and must be controlled so as to prevent conflicts from escalating, which may ultimately undermine public acceptance of the very existence of a population of large carnivores in the country.

20 Apr 2020, 14:14 PM

STA, 20 April 2020 - The Constitutional Court has repealed an emergency law ordering the culling of brown bear and wolf populations which was to remain valid until late September. Even though the cull determined by the law has already been carried out, the decision may prevent the adoption of emerging amendments that would increase the cull quota for this year.

The court has ruled that the law is in violation of Article 3 of the Constitution, which refers to the separation of powers between the three branches of government. Based on that, it did not rule on the substance of the law, said Alpe Adria Green, an environmental NGO.

The law gave permission to hunters to cull 175 bears and 11 wolves. Most of the animals have already been culled, but the NGO says the ruling would probably put a stop to an amendment to the act currently under discussion which would enforce additional culling.

A constitutional review of the bill was sought by the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs and the Association for the Preservation of Slovenian Natural Heritage in July. The court agreed at the time that any culling should be regulated by the nature conservation act and the decree on protected wild animal species, while the culling should be ordered by the government.

After the Administrative Court annulled a number of such government decrees, parliament passed a law directly mandating the cull, a move that the Constitutional Court sees as violation of the principle of the separation of powers.

Since the legislation was to expire at the end of September, efforts to amend the act have begun. The changes, which were proposed by the National Council in February and enjoy support from the government, would expand the annual cull: 220 bears were to be killed between 1 May and 30 April 2021 and 30 wolves from May to late January 2021.

More than 30 environmental NGOs have protested against the proposal, addressing a letter to the EU Commission representation office and European Parliament office in Slovenia and urging the authorities to immediately impose a moratorium on carnivore culling in the country.

Slovenia has a thriving brown bear population that was estimated at 750-975 animals at the end of 2018 under a study conducted in the framework of the international project LIFE. Culling is a widely accepted management practice supported by researchers, but in recent years the public pressure to control the population has increased due to a growing number of human-bear conflicts.

The wolf population, meanwhile, is estimated at around 80 animals, according to a study commissioned by the Agriculture Ministry. Damage by wolves, in particular to livestock, has been increasing in recent years, but experts say culling must be very precise in order not to disturb the hierarchy of wolf packs, which may actually cause greater damage if packs are unstable.

23 Sep 2019, 15:49 PM

STA, 21 September 2019 - A total of 120 bears and a couple of wolves have been culled so far under the emergency law, the Slovenian Forest Service has told the STA. Hunting officials have also been granted a decree for emergency wolf culling in the Julian Alps.

Until the end of August, bears have caused damage in 210 cases, up from 96 in the same period last year. Related material damage is estimated at EUR 71,400, which is again an increase compared to last year's EUR 47,700.

Meanwhile, wolves were destructive in 240 cases (116 last year), with the damage being estimated at EUR 158,000 (EUR 71,600 in 2018).

On average, wolves slaughtered 3.6 heads of small cattle in a single attack, altogether slaughtering 756 of them so far this year. They have also attacked almost 40 heads of cattle, over 40 horses and four donkeys.

The emergency law, which came into effect at the end of June, gives hunting officials the right to cull 175 bears and 11 wolves. The culling of the latter stops if the numbers are reduced by five adult wolves.

Wolf culling comes with special requirements which the Environment Ministry relaxed in August having faced pressure by farmers and hunters. Thus the culling area was extended to cover the entire area of the pack's domain.

Culling can be carried out only in areas stipulated in the emergency law, whereas to cull in other places hunters need a special decree. But even that was made more flexible in August.

The emergency law will be in place until 30 April 2020 for bear culling and until 31 January 2020 for wolf culling, which will also take place during the whole of September 2020.

The Environment Ministry is preparing a new law, with its draft proposing culling of 175 bears and 7 wolves. The Forest Service said that the new law would not hinder the emergency law culling.

Learn about photographing brown bears in Slovenia here

16 Aug 2019, 16:10 PM

STA, 16 August 2019 - Amid escalating tensions over action in response to a growing number of wolf attacks on farm animals in Slovenia, 13,462 people have signed a petition urging against the planned culling of bears and wolves.

The petition, initiated by the animal rights group AniMa, was handed to Environment Minister Simon Zajc on Friday to "have the voice of reason heard when it comes to man's coexistence with bears and wolves".

The initiator of the petition, Andreja Galinec, reported with disappointment after the meeting that "we failed to prevent the culling".

"The answer we received was that the culling will not be halted," Nevenka Lukić Rojšek of AniMa said.

According to the ministry, Minster Zajc stressed at the meeting the the emergency act on culling was "addressing the burning issue of bear and wolf overpopulation and was needed at this moment to get the numbers back to a level that is also favourable for the local human population".

Zajc also announced he would inquire with his ministerial colleagues in the EU if there was a chance of one of the European countries accepting Slovenian bears and wolves.

He added the issue of overpopulation and management of bear and wolf populations needed to be removed from the realm of politics and returned to experts as soon as possible.

The group had proposed that the government immediately issue a moratorium on the emergency act regulating the culling and form a task force to analyse the state of affairs and find solutions that would not be dictated by political pressure.

Urging long-term measures to preserve wildlife and protect farm animals, the group says that Slovenia needs to preserve its population of wild animals as a key to preserve the balance of nature.

"Hunters have been interfering too much in this balance, and the price is now being paid by farmers, who a while ago demanded the culling of deer because of the damage to their crops," they say.

Arguing that there are also those among "the 22,000 armed people considered hunters" who use hunting as "a profitable business and cruel entertainment at the expense of animals", they believe that hunting for deer should be restricted and much better controlled, while subsidies for farm animal production in wolf and bear habitats should be made conditional on preventive measures.

"We urge the government not to be held hostage by a small interest group that demands violent solutions now, without considering long-term consequences. Slovenia is us too who disagree with the culling of bears and wolves, and there are many of us," the petitioners say.

The number of wolf attacks on farm animals has more than doubled this year over the same period in 2018, after an NGO successfully challenged in court the government's 2018 decree ordering the removal of 175 bears and 11 wolves from the wild.

Data from the Institute for Forests show that nearly 680 animals had been attacked by the end of July, but the number has increased since as new attacks are reported almost on a daily basis.

To tackle the situation, parliament passed a law in June ordering an emergency culling, but while hunters have killed 75 bears, the complex rules have prevented them from culling any wolves yet.

Following a protest by farmers on Saturday, changes have been agreed to facilitate the culling.

There are an estimated 1,000 bears and 80 wolves in the country. Most of the wolves live in 14 packs, while some live alone.

While there have been two attacks by bears on humans so far this year, Miha Krofel of the Ljubljana Biotechnical Faculty has told the STA that there is no confirmed case of a wolf hurting a human in Slovenia on record.

All our stories on bears are here, those on wolves are here

14 Aug 2019, 16:00 PM

STA, 14 August 2019 - A she-bear with a cub attacked a hunter in the woods in the municipality of Ajdovščina, south-west, on Tuesday evening while he approached it unaware of its presence, the Nova Gorica Police Department said in a release on Wednesday.

The police explained the 67-year-old hunter had sat under a tree when he noticed a 150-kilogramme bear with a cub some 10 metres away.

The bear attacked him, biting his leg and scratching his head and body when the hunter started to yell to chase it away.

He sought medical assistance at the local emergency unit on his own, but the injuries were not as severe to require hospitalisation, so he is recovering at home.

The Forest Service, one of the main national organisations in charge of wild animal populations, was notified of the attack to take required measures.

However, analysing the attack it said it was a result of an unlucky coincidence when a hunter ran into a bear with a cub.

And since the incident occurred in the forest rather than near a town, the bear was assessed not to be aggressive so it will be monitored rather than culled.

This was a second bear attack on people this year, said the Forest Service, adding a long-term average is two to three attacks a year.

The first took place at the end of June, when an 80-year-old woman was attacked by a female bear with two cubs near her village some 15 kilometres south of Ljubljana.

Hunters were then ordered to kill the bear and both of its cubs, but could not do it because activists prevented the decree from being implemented.

Once the decree expired, the Forest Service decided not to extend it because there were no other encounters with the bear.

Just two days before this year's first bear attack, parliament passed an emergency bill to reduce the bear and wolf populations by 200 and eleven, respectively.

The law was needed to end the deadlock resulting from the Administrative Court banning bear culling upon an NGO's appeal against a government decree.

This resulted in the bear populations growing rapidly, to some 1,000, whereas the wolf population is estimated at around 80.

But the emergency law has been severely criticised by farmers and hunters, as wolf and bear attacks are continuing.

Hunters have culled 75 bears under the emergency law but not a single wolf since severe restrictions apply to wolf hunting, so they risk high fines.

The rules were somewhat loosened at yesterday's high-profile meeting hosted by the environment minister.

All our stories on bears are here, and those on hunting are here

10 Aug 2019, 17:47 PM

STA, 10 August 2019 - Farmers demanded a significant decrease in the country's wolf population at a rally in Velike Lašče on Saturday. They believe wolf population must be restricted to a fenced-in reserve in state-owned forests and demand preferential treatment for people living in wolf-populated areas.

Addressing the rally this morning, president of the Farmers' Trade Union Anton Medved said that the union would not agree to having to fence in the entire countryside.

"Just like farmers are obligated to prevent our animals from causing damage to neighbours, the state is obligated to take care of its wild animals, so that they will not cause damage to Slovenian farmers, said the president of the union that organised the rally.

He also said it was unacceptable that the wolf population had spread into the Alps, where a number attacks have been reported this year.

A banner spanning over the stage showed the map of Slovenia with dozens of red dots indicating the locations of attacks that happened in the past six months.

While most of the attacks happened in the southern regions of Dolenjska and Notranjska, the map also showed about a dozen attacks in the Alps of the northwestern region of Gorenjska.

Moreover, Medved demanded that the the state should recognise a lower standard of living for people living in areas with wild animal population, thus introducing tax relieves and development incentives to their benefit.

He also called on Environment and Spatial Planning Minister Simon Zajc to resign. The minister meanwhile responded by saying that the call for resignation was unfounded.

He said in a written statement that he was completely aware of the seriousness of the situation and that he expects those charged with implementing the recently passed intervention law, ordering the kill of 11 wolves, to come up with solutions to do this faster.

Medved said in his speech thta "the Farmers' Trade Union will do everything it can for the Slovenian countryside to remain cultivated, inhabited and to become safe again".

"Only this way will it be attractive for the young... and only this way will Slovenia be able to produce sufficient amounts of food to sustain it through any form of emergency situations."

Until their demands are met, the union is set on staging rallies every weekend. In a week, they will protest in Ilirska Bistrica and a week later in Gornja Radgona, where the country's biggest agricultural and food fair, AGRA, will be taking place.

The protest was also addressed by Agriculture and Food Minister Aleksandra Pivec, who said that the two relevant ministries, her's and the Environment Ministry, and the entire government were determined to tackle the situation.

She also said that these issues should not become political, but should be left to experts.

The latter, on the other hand, do not enjoy much respect among farmers, who believe that experts are at fault that the wild animal populations have reached such high numbers.

According to estimates, there are some 1,000 bears in Slovenia and nearly 90 wolves, living in 14 packs. Farmers and many hunters also believe that the number of wolves slated to be killed is too low and that the intervention act, which was passed in June summer, was ineffective because it imposed too many conditions.

The number of wolf attacks on farm animals has doubled this year over the same period in 2018. Data from the Institute for Forests show that nearly 680 animals had been attacked by the end of July.

Official data show that wolf attacked nearly 580 sheep and goats, but they also attacked larger animals: 41 horses and 34 bovine, as well as two dogs. By now, the total figure has exceeded 700, as new attacks are reported every few days.

All our stories on wolves in Slovenia are here, while bears in Slovenia are here

06 Aug 2019, 12:02 PM

STA, 5 August 2019 - The Jurišče village near Pivka in south-western Slovenia saw a mass wolf attack on sheep on Sunday. The Slovenian Farmers' Trade Union has announced a protest to draw attention to the issue of such attacks becoming more frequent, saying Slovenia could not cope with the current number of wild animals.

Between 15 and 20 wolves slaughtered 12 sheep during the night and injured another 10 despite protective measures, including fencing and shepherd dogs.

A number of injured sheep will have to be put down, and one of shepherd dogs was also hurt during the attack.

Without the dogs, the attack could have been even more deadly, Florjan Peternelj of the Farmers' Trade Union told the STA on Monday.

He pointed out that Slovenia could not handle so many wild animals as there are currently in the country, highlighting the recent spike in wolf and bear attacks.

According to studies, Slovenia can cope with some 100 bears and two wolf packs at most, he said, adding that any extra animals could not survive because of a lack of food.

There are some 100 wolves in Slovenia, and the attacks have been on the rise because Administrative Court orders on culling had not been carried out due to appeals by NGOs.

An emergency bill authorising hunters to shoot 175 bears and 11 wolves was passed in parliament in June. Some bears have already been culled, but no wolves.

In the wake of these attacks becoming increasingly frequent, the trade union will organise a protest in Velike Lašče, south of Ljubljana, on Saturday.

It invites, according to Peternelj, all affected farmers and people who would like to fight for a safer countryside.

All our stories about wolves are here, and bears are here

03 Aug 2019, 11:10 AM

STA, 2 August 2019 - Environment Minister Simon Zajc called for coexistence between people and wolves as he visited on Friday the Cerkljansko region, where wolf attacks on livestock have become increasingly frequent. He pointed to measures that protect humans and their property from wolves.

Two attacks occurred at the same time last Sunday, which means that two packs of wolves are currently in the region.

Hunting officials have been given the green light to cull one wolf and the minister hopes that this reduction will deter any other wolves from visiting villages and attacking.

"Our task is to enable coexistence. Coexistence means that people do not live in fear, that there are possibilities for development and that we have sufficient wolf population," the minister said.

A number of measures are necessary to meet these targets, including subsidised school transport, fencing and culling, he added.

The minister noted that there had been a spike in wolf attacks on farm animals. The increase is, according to him, a result of not carrying out Administrative Court orders on culling in the past.

Wolf is a territorial animal, which moves on when the space gets scarce. The presence of wolves in the region has been proven and the population has been expanding, he said.

The authorities have expanded their monitoring area and the Environment Ministry is working on solutions in cooperation with the Agriculture Ministry.

The minister expressed confidence that experts would set an appropriate figure for culling.

During today's visit, the minister met local mayors and civil initiative representatives as well as farmers who have been affected by the attacks.

The founder of an initiative for the removal of dangerous wild animals, Ivan Mavri, said after the meeting that the organisation demanded measures that would restore a sense of security in the region, but conceded that this would not happen overnight.

According to Mavri, the locals want this area to be completely wolf-free.

Marko Gasser, one of the people who have suffered most damage during the attacks, said that a number of locals had submitted a request to the ministry to define the areas where wolves would be allowed to hunt, excluding the Gorenjska and north Primorska regions.

According to Zajc, there are currently between 88 and 100 wolves in Slovenia.

Under the law on extraordinary culling of bears and wolves, which entered into force at the end of June, a total of 62 bears have been culled so far, and no wolves, according to the national Forest Service.

The law permits the culling of 175 bears and 11 wolves, which is more than 10% of the population of both animals in Slovenia, with the service estimating the bear population at around 1,000 and the wolf population at 100.

The most of the damage is being done by wolves, which this year attacked more than 500 domestic animals, more than double compared to the same period last year.

The Forest Service dealt with a total of 406 cases of damage done by wolves this year, with the total amount being estimated at EUR 312,000.

13 Jun 2019, 12:53 PM

STA, 12 June 2019 - The government adopted an intervention bill ordering the culling of overgrown bear and wolf populations on Wednesday. The move comes after a decree with the same order was successfully challenged by an environmental NGO in Administrative Court, leading to a steep increase in wolf and bear attacks on farm animals this year.

The bill stipulates the "removal" of 200 bears, of which 175 are to be culled, while the rest is expected to perish naturally or in car accidents or other incidents. Moreover, 11 wolves are to be culled.

Slovenia is home to 12 wolf packs, each five to ten strong, Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec said as she announced this bill earlier this week. She also said that wolves alone had killed 72 sheep, 19 cows, 15 horses, a donkey and two other farm animals this year.

Slovenia's bear population, which was on the brink of extinction in early 20th century, is estimated at about 1,000, whereas a population of some 400 bears is deemed optimal.

While bear attacks have also caused significant damage in agriculture, with livestock herds decimated in some cases, the government also says that there is a significant risk of bear attacks on humans.

Experts believe that Slovenia's bear population has reached a number that should not be exceeded, underlining that acceptance of big carnivores by the population is key in successful management of their population.

Slovenia has been nearing a boiling point in this respect, with farmers and agricultural associations staging rallies to protest against the government's inaction in the face of their decimated herds.

The bill, drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture, has been filed by the Ministry of Environment, which is in charge of large carnivores management in Slovenia.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary environment and agriculture committees will hold a joint session this afternoon to discuss the attacks of bears and wolves on livestock.

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