A number of extremely marauding dark-brown bears , including one that killed 38 newborn reindeer one calendar month and 18 young moose the next , have been traverse and monitored in a subject field in Norrbotten , northern Sweden .
The bear was one of 15 pass over with GPS collars . research worker also fit 2,500 grownup distaff reindeer with proximity dog collar to inform them of any brush between the two species .
The subject area – published in the journalDiversity – tracked the bears over two years . They found that many of the more predatory bears had an " dynamic hunt scheme " , which involved haunt reindeer grounds during reindeer have young season , before moving to moose habitat for their calving time of year . During the peak of each calving time of year , the more aggressive of the bears killed more than 20 new-sprung reindeer and five newborn moose , severally . The most efficacious bear was that which kill 38 new-sprung reindeer within a calendar month .
“ We found that brown bear switched their home ground across pre - calving , reindeer calving , moose calving and mail calving periods , ” researcher and expert in wildlife preservation in Nottingham Trent University ’s School of Animal , Rural and Environmental Sciences Dr Antonio Uzal Fernandez , said in a statement .
“ It is unmortgaged that highly marauding bear were mirror the land covert types of reindeer and moose and to overlap with seasonally available and vulnerable quarry . Such a process shows an fighting hunting strategy of brown bears in spring , when their diet is more subordinate on beast protein than during the respite of the twelvemonth . "
This was n’t true of all the bear in the cogitation .
“ Interestingly , high and low predatory bears selected home ground otherwise in all study periods with few habitats selected or avoided by both groups , ” Fernandez added .
The deviation in predatory behaviour between the individuals explained the variance in their choose home ground throughout the yr , grant to co - source Andres Ordiz , a conservation biologist at the University of León .
" Differences among individuals are also important from a management position , " Ordiz added . " For representative bare predator removal , without direct specific individuals , may not necessarily reduce fight . ”
During calving season , the authors say around 30 percentage of reindeer calves are kill by predator , while newborn moose make up about 44 percentage of the bears ' diet during natural spring in south central Sweden .
The researchers believe that the bears have learned the veritable movement of reindeer during the seasons , and hope that this trail datum – and proximity data – could be used to predict potential hotspot for conflict between the two coinage , and so help , for example , caribou farmers take preventative action .
