Behaviour of brown bears killing wild ungulates in the Cantabrian Mountains, Southwestern Europe

Juan Carlos Blanco (1) , Fernando Ballesteros (1) , Alicia García-Serrano (2) , Juan Herrero (3) , Carlos Nores (4) , Guillermo Palomero (1)

1 Brown Bear Foundation
2 Ega Wildlife Consultants
3 Area of Ecology, Technical School of Huesca
4 Universidad de Oviedo [Oviedo]

Although brown bears () are known to be major predators of ungulates in North America and Northern Europe, there is little documentation regarding bear predation on wild ungulates in Southern Europe. We describe search, detection, killing and prey consumption behaviour by brown bears during seven attacks on <1-month roe deer, red deer and chamois fawns in spring in the Cantabrian Mountains, north-western Spain. As soon as the bears detected a fawn by their smell or their mother's presence, they switched from routine foraging on plants and insects to an intensive search for the fawns, mainly using smell to comb a 0.5-1 ha area for 15-45 min. They killed the fawns either while the latter were resting or after a brief chase. The bears usually took their prey to dense vegetation, consuming it immediately. In four cases, 5-month-old cubs accompanying the female did not participate in the hunt. We also document the apparently non-predatory killing of a 40-kg wild boar by a female bear with cubs surprised by a sudden encounter. They did not eat the boar after the attack.

Mots clés: Brown bear; Predation; Wild ungulates; Cantabrian Mountains; Spain

Juan Carlos Blanco, Fernando Ballesteros, Alicia García-Serrano, Juan Herrero, Carlos Nores, et al.. Behaviour of brown bears killing wild ungulates in the Cantabrian Mountains, Southwestern Europe. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 2010, pp.669-673. ⟨10.1007/s10344-010-0464-z⟩. ⟨hal-00640234⟩