The core of the population is in the Dinaric Mountains. Today, bears are slowly coming back to Alps where they historically were widely distributed until the 18th century, but were later nearly extirpated. The size of the brown bear population in Slovenia and Croatia was estimated in DINALP BEAR project in the end of 2016.
The core area of brown bear is concentrated in Dinaric forests in Notranjska (Javorniki, Snežnik) and Kočevska region which extend across the border with Croatia into Gorski Kotar and further towards the south-east. North and west from the core area bears live in Hrušica, Nanos and Trnovski gozd, and spreads to Menišija and Krimsko-mokrsko mountains, and in the East to Gorjanci.
Monitoring
There are several ways to estimate a bear population size. In Central Europe, the most commonly used methods are noninvasive genetic sampling (e.g. bear scat, hairs, saliva) for estimate of total number and counting bears at permanent feeding sites to estimate trends in bear population size.
The best method for studying bear movement patterns is telemetry. Bears are immobilized and equipped with a GPS collar. This regularly connects with the signal from GPS satellites and calculates the exact locations of a bear. The data about the locations are sent to the researchers through the GSM signal.
