The spring dietary habits of the Brown bear (Ursus arctos syriacus Linnaeus, 1758) in Hyrcanian forest (Case study: Golestan National Park)

Understanding of food habits of animals is an important issue to perceive the ecology of species. Distribution, availability and quality of food sources affect the reproduction success of Brown bears. Habitat destruction and consequent biological constraints (including decrease of the prey population and reducing the security of habitats) has reduced the population of this species. The purpose of this study was to study the spring dietary habits of the Brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Golestan National Park. During field activities and finding the places of the brown bear scats, the samples were transferred to laboratory and were coded. Then, the scats were separated by soaking and the residues of the preys in the scats were separated and identified. In the next step, the percentage of any food was calculated within the whole scats. According to the results in spring, the highest dry weight of food item in brown bear scats was belonging to plants. Brown bears had also used insects in the beginning of spring and continued to use different vertebrates during the spring season. According to the results, herbaceous plants in this season had the highest frequency among consumed bears (60%).Among the vertebrates consumed by bears, the hair ibex, the hair wild goat and the hair rabbit had similar incidence rates (5.17).A striking feature of this season is the presence of hair donkey in the brown bear consumable food that was obtained through carcasses or hunting. The results of this study revealed that Brown bears in the Golestan National Park had a variety of food sources and so that could improve their population while human activities did not destroy the habitat of this animal.