Eye of the Bear

The beginning of this monitoring program dates back to 2017, when we placed the first few camera trails in the Kremnica Hills in cooperation with colleagues from the association Forest For Children in Slovakia. Our goal was to identify areas with the presence of brown bears, wolves and Eurasian lynx in this part of Slovakia, which is not subject to any state nature protection, despite the fact of exceptionality of the region.

During the years 2018 – 2019 we have obtained a number of unique shots of wild animals, including bears. Since the summer of 2019, we have started the first cooperation with rangers from NAPANT (Low Tatras National Park) to monitor bears. We have agreed on a possible cooperation on monitoring from 2020.

In June 2020, we signed a cooperation agreement with the State Nature Conservation Of Slovakia (ŠOP) in Banská Bystrica to monitor large carnivores in NAPANT and Kremnica Hills. Part of our activity is not only monitoring with camera trails (until the end of 2021), but also collecting genetic samples of bears and wolves (droppings and fur) in order to determine a more accurate number of bears in Slovakia and also analysis of the food of bears and wolves (until the end of April 2021). In the Kremnica Hills it is an area of 600 km² and in NAPANT the Ďumbier Tatras, including the protection zone.