The increasing trend of large carnivore attacks on humans not only raises human safety concerns but may also undermine large carnivore conservation efforts. Although rare, attacks by brown bears Ursus arctos are also on the rise and, although several studies have addressed this issue at local scales, information is lacking on a worldwide scale. Here, we investigated brown bear attacks (n = 664) on humans between 2000 and 2015 across most of the range inhabited by the species: North America (n = 183), Europe (n = 291), and East (n = 190). When the attacks occurred, half of the people were engaged in leisure activities and the main scenario was an encounter with a female with cubs. Attacks have increased significantly over time and were more frequent at high bear and low human population densities. There was no significant difference in the number of attacks between continents or between countries with different hunting practices. Understanding global patterns of bear attacks can help reduce dangerous encounters and, consequently, is crucial for informing wildlife managers and the public about appropriate measures to reduce this kind of conflicts in bear country.

Attacks by wild carnivores on humans represent an increasing problem in urban areas across North America and their frequency is expected to rise following urban expansion towards carnivore habitats. Here, we analyzed records of carnivore attacks on humans in urban areas of the U.S. and Canada between 1980 and 2016 to analyze the general patterns of the attacks, as well as describe the landscape structure and, for those attacks occurring at night, the light conditions at the site of the attacks. We found that several behavioral and landscape-related factors were recurrent elements in the attacks recorded. The species for which the attack locations were available (coyote and black bear) attacked in areas with different conditions of landscape structure and artificial light. Specifically, black bears attacked more frequently in areas with abundant and aggregated vegetation cover and scarce buildings and roads, while coyotes attacked in a broader range of landscape conditions. At night, black bears attacked in generally darker areas than coyotes. By providing a comprehensive perspective of the phenomenon, this study will improve our understanding of how effective strategies aimed at reducing the frequency of risky encounters in urban areas should be developed.

In early 2020, the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led multiple countries to introduce strict lockdown measures to contain the pandemic. Movement restrictions may have influenced the ability of the public to contribute to citizen science projects. We investigated how stay-at-home orders affected data submitted by birdwatchers in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK) to a widely-used citizen science platform, iNaturalist, depending on whether observations were collected in urban or non-urban areas. We found significant trends in the daily number of observations in all three countries, indicating a surge in urban observation during lockdowns. We found an increase in the mean daily number of urban observations during the lockdown in Italy and Spain, compared to previous years. The mean daily number of non-urban observations decreased in Italy and Spain, while remained similar to previous years in the UK. We found a general decrease of new records during the lockdowns both in urban and non-urban areas in all countries. Our results suggest that the citizen science community remained active during the lockdowns and kept reporting birds from home. However, limitations to movements may have hampered the possibility of birdwatchers to explore natural areas and collect new records. Our findings suggest that future research and conservation applications of citizen science data should carefully consider the bias and gaps in data series caused by the pandemic. Furthermore, our study highlights the potential of urban areas for nature activities, such as birdwatching, and its relevance for sustainable urban planning.

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Hibernation represents an adaptation for coping with unfavorable environmental conditions. For brown bears Ursus arctos, hibernation is a critical period as pronounced temporal reductions in several physiological functions occur. Here, we review the three main aspects of brown bear denning: (1) den chronology, (2) den characteristics, and (3) hibernation physiology in order to identify (a) proximate and ultimate factors of hibernation as well as (b) research gaps and conservation priorities. Den chronology, which varies by sex and reproductive status, depends on environmental factors, such as snow, temperature, food availability, and den altitude. Significant variation in hibernation across latitudes occurs for both den entry and exit. The choice of a den and its surroundings may affect individual fitness, for example, loss of offspring and excessive energy consumption. Den selection is the result of broad‐ and fine‐scale habitat selection, mainly linked to den insulation, remoteness, and availability of food in the surroundings of the den location. Hibernation is a metabolic challenge for the brown bears, in which a series of physiological adaptations in tissues and organs enable survival under nutritional deprivation, maintain high levels of lipids, preserve muscle, and bone and prevent cardiovascular pathologies such as atherosclerosis. It is important to understand: (a) proximate and ultimate factors in denning behavior and the difference between actual drivers of hibernation (i.e., factors to which bears directly respond) and their correlates; (b) how changes in climatic factors might affect the ability of bears to face global climate change and the human‐mediated changes in food availability; (c) hyperphagia (period in which brown bears accumulate fat reserves), predenning and denning periods, including for those populations in which bears do not hibernate every year; and (d) how to approach the study of bear denning merging insights from different perspectives, that is, physiology, ecology, and behavior.

AimRoads impact wildlife in different ways, among which road mortality has been the most studied. Budgets in conservation biology are usually small, and macroecological approaches have been employed in recent years as the first steps towards guiding management. Carnivores are particularly vulnerable to mortality on roads due to their elevated ecological needs (low population density, often low fecundity and relatively large home ranges). Our aim was to develop a ranking methodology to prioritize specific areas for road‐kill mitigation.LocationContinental Italy.MethodsWe studied 271 occurrences of live polecats (Mustela putorius) and 212 polecat road‐kill sites. We used the former to generate a species distribution model and the latter to identify the variables that determined the road‐kill risk. Habitat suitability was derived from a spatial distribution model that combined the polecat occurrence data with a set of environmental variables. Prey availability was derived from the combination of suitability maps of 26 prey species. We used generalized linear modelling to identify the set of variables that best explained the occurrence of road‐kills. The variables included in the best performing model were combined to produce the road risk map and to identify the areas with the highest densities of road sections with highest risk.ResultsRoad‐kills were positively associated with the road sections with higher broad‐leaved forest coverage. The number of casualties was found to be higher than expected on the national and provincial roads and lower than expected on the local roads.Main conclusionsThis approach allowed us to identify the 10 × 10 km cells where mitigation actions to prevent road‐kills should be prioritized. As mitigation actions (wildlife passage construction, fencing) are expensive, measures should be prioritized on the specific high‐risk road sections inside these selected cells, avoiding generalized mitigation plans.

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2021) Mandible morphology as a tool to investigate origin, adaptation and stress in invasive alien species: first insights into Callosciuruserythraeus (Rodentia: Sciuridae) in Europe,