Predators+in+nature

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= = ====**Poland** - one of the biggest countries of central Europe (312,685 km ) is inhabited by almost 40 million people. Large wood complexes of pine, spruce, mixed and deciduous (consisting of beech, hornbeam, birch, oak, lime, maple) forests, rich in native species of plants and animals, cover about 28% of the total country area.====

The ungulate community consists mostly of four native species: red deer, roe deer, wild boar and moose. In a few places small isolated free-ranging populations of European bison still exist.
====The population of three main ungulate species has increased significantly during the last forty years and in 2000 reached a level of 117,500 red deer, 597,000 roe deer, 180,300 wild boar (the moose population is still small, about 2,000 individuals and slightly decreasing) in the whole of Poland. Ungulates causa large scale damage to young trees plantations and thickets and cost of prevention activities in the State Forests achieved a peak of £12 million. Such circumstances create ideal conditions for the large predators present. The large carnivore community includes the wolf, the lynx and the brown bear in Poland. All these species are protected in the whole country, the brown bear since 1957, the lynx since 1995, and the wolf since 1998.==== ====The only region inhabited by brown bear is the Carpathian Mts. (south east and south central Poland), where no more than 80 individuals occur. They are part of a larger population inhabiting the Carpathian Mountain range. Lynx is not a common species in Poland. Its distribution is limited to north-eastern and, eastern part of Poland and the Carpathian Mts. According to preliminary results of this year’s large scale inventory of wolf and lynx populations, the number of lynx is surprisingly low, about 180 individuals.====

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**Wolves**



====The wolf is perhaps the most charismatic and controversial of the large predators living in Europe today; few animals have such a powerful influence on our imaginations, or have been so feared and misunderstood.==== ====Wolves were was once found all over Europe, including the British Isles, but as human populations expanded and forests were cleared for agriculture, they were increasingly persecuted. By the mid-eighteenth century wolves had disappeared from Britain, and by the mid-twentieth century only small, isolated populations survived in western Europe and in the remote mountainous regions of central and eastern Europe.==== ====Wolves have made a comeback in many countries in recent years, due to increased environmental awareness, legal protection and conservation measures, but their future is now threatened by increasing loss of habitat and conflict with livestock farming.====

(“The Wolves and Humans Foundation”)
=**Wolf distribution and numbers in Poland**=

number of last year’s official data, which was based on hunter's inventories.
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=Studies on wolves in Poland=

the impact of wolves on the managed forests.
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Wolves in the Lower Silesian Forest, Poland

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Footprints of the wolf



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Bears



====**The brown bear** occupies a uniquely contradictory place in human culture. The familiar teddy bear provides reassurance and comfort to millions of children all over the world, yet television documentaries portray graphic reconstructions of bear attacks on campers and hikers.==== ====Our relationship with bears goes back thousands of years, to a time when early man painted images of bears on cave walls for religious and ceremonial purposes. Whilst never hated or persecuted to the same extent as wolves, human expansion and clearance of the great forests of Europe greatly reduced bear populations and range, and today only a few remain in western Europe, and fragmentation and loss of habitat continues to threaten bears in their remaining strongholds in the Carpathian Mountains and the snowy forests of north-eastern Europe.====

(“The Wolves and Humans Foundation”)
====**In historical times**, the brown bear occurred in all Poland. Preserved by law as a royal game animal, only kings and nobles could hunt bears. However, the species was persecuted at every opportunity in ruthless ways. In the 18th century, bears were perceived as a pest and special traps were set to kill them. They consisted of holes in the ground with sharp poles on the bottom, often located under trees with bee-hives in the forest. The bears were also killed for their meat, fat and pelts, which were highly valuable in the context of chronic poverty of that period. Hunting and habitat degradation caused the gradual disappearance of the species in most parts of the country. From the 16th century onwards, its destruction became increasingly intensive. The species was soon confined to the Carpathians, and by the end of World War I, only few bears were left in the country. The last refuge of the Polish lowland was Bialowieza Forest, where the last bears were shot under the Russian rule in the end of 19th century. After World War II, the number of bears within the new borders of Poland was estimated at 10-14; they persisted only in the Tatra and Bieszczady mountains. That number remained stable until the 60s, when the population of brown bears slowly started to recover. The highest increase of bear numbers took place in the Bieszczady mountains, where large areas became virtually depopulated as a consequence of the forced deportation of southeastern Poland’s Ukrainians in 1947.==== ====Currently, the number of bears in the Polish Carpathians is roughly estimated on 100-120 individuals (although it should be noted that it has never been assessed reliably). The Polish population represents the northwestern range of the distribution of the Carpathian population. The Carpathian population includes the brown bears in Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania and it has been estimated in c.a. 8,000 bears. There are five main bear refuges in Poland, all of them are located in the Carpathian Mountains: the Bieszczady Mts, the Tatra Mts, the Beskid Niski Mts, the Beskid Zywiecki Mts, the Beskid Sadecki Mts and the Gorce Mts. For the bear population in Poland the most valuable area are the Bieszczady mountains, which are home for more than 70% of the population.====

**Brown bear distribution in Poland**



= = = = = = = =  **Lynx**

====Shy and elusive, few people will ever see a **lynx** in the wild. Because of this, Europe’s largest wild cat features less in our mythology and folklore than the wolf or bear, but amongst hunting and farming communities it has a reputation as a killer of both livestock and valuable game. It was relentlessly persecuted for centuries, until it became extinct in much of Europe by the middle of the 20th century.==== ====Much of the lynx’s former forest habitat has now gone, but following legal protection and several reintroductions, its decline has been reversed and there are now small lynx populations in western and central Europe, with healthier numbers in northern Europe. Fragmentation of habitat and isolation of vulnerable populations remain a major threat to the ‘tiger’ of the northern forest.====

(“The Wolves and Humans Foundation”)
Lynks distribution in Poland