Brown bear-caused human injuries and fatalities in Russia are linked to human encroachment

Threat to human safety is the most dramatic conflict between humans and large carnivores. Although carnivore attacks are generally rare, bears are relatively often involved. Here, we reveal an association between human encroachment into the landscape, that is, increasing road density, and brown bear-caused human casualties (injuries and fatalities) in Russia. In European Russia, the frequency of casualties correlated positively with bear population size and negatively with the presence of Siberian pine, a crucial bear food in the predenning period and a commonly gathered human resource. In Siberia, however, the number of casualties was not related to the number of bears, but it was positively associated with both road density and the presence of Siberian pine. Increasing casualties there were seemingly linked to increasing access to areas where both humans and bears concentrated simultaneously to harvest the same resource, edible pine seeds. The latter are more often collected commercially in Siberia than in European Russia. Our study shows the link between habitat degradation and human-wildlife conflict. Indeed, interacting effects of habitat change and coexistence with large carnivores deserve further attention, as we illustrate here for Russian forests; a wide boreal ecosystem where human encroachment can have severe repercussions for wildlife and ecosystem functioning at multiple spatial levels.

Automated summary

The study shows the link between habitat degradation and human-wildlife conflict, specifically in relation to increased road density and brown bear-caused human casualties in Russia. In European Russia, casualties were correlated with bear population size and the presence of Siberian pine, while in Siberia, they were associated with road density and the presence of Siberian pine. This highlights the importance of understanding the interacting effects of habitat change and large carnivore coexistence in forest ecosystems.