Abstract 81 – Brown bears escape from overcrowded road infrastructure by utilizing Ceausescu’s existing underpasses

Mihai Fedorca, Ancuta Fedorca, Georgeta Ionescu, Ovidiu Ionescu Dracea, Ramon
Jurj

Roadkill and habitat loss are two of the main threats to biodiversity, and both people and
wildlife could be injured, and many times, both lose their lives. Road ecology has evolved as a
tool to reduce these encounters and the damages, but unfortunately, in areas where the road
infrastructure is already overcrowded and impossible to cross, the costs to mitigate these
conflicts are very high and often hard to obtain. Our study aims to demonstrate that wildlife
species, especially brown bears, are crossing busy roads by using existing bridges built in the
past to regulate the water flow to pass under the road. The study is in Romania (Eastern
Europe) – Brasov County, where we have monitored 30 bridges in the period starting from
March 2022 till August 2023, using photo trap cameras. In this period, more than 1500
crossings have been recorded by the cameras, which can be translated into the same number of
accidents being avoided. The maximum number of crossings was registered in the summer
months (July and August), correlated with the holiday period when the traffic volume in the
area was the highest.