NACRES Hosts International Bear Conference

The 19th International Conference on Bear Research and Management (IBA 2010) was held in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, May 17-21 2010. In addition to general consideration of all eight bear species, the conference focused on brown bear conservation in the Caucasus region as well as setting out future plans for wildlife bear management.

“Since Georgia is on the crossroads between West and East, one of the main objectives of the Tbilisi conference was to bring together bear specialists from both and promote dialogue between them”, says NACRES, the official organizer for the 2010 conference.

About 200 delegates from the Americas and Eurasia, world-known bear specialists among them, attended the IBA 2010 conference. Apart from the conferences’ scientific program two workshops, included within the conference program, covered the burning issues of human-bear conflict and captive bear management.

Sponsors: IBA, NACRES, EU, FFI, Ilia State University, Tbilisi Zoo, Alertis

FFI / NACRES: Joint Project

Fauna&Flora International (FFI) and NACRES have begun a joint three year project funded by the European Commission.

The project aims at conserving unique biodiversity of the semi-arid landscape in Georgia as well as developing effective mechanisms to improve the conservation status of large carnivores in and around Vashlovani Protected Area.

On the Traces of Leopard

NACRES together with WWF and the Agency of Protected Areas have launched a joint initiative the aim of which is to discover the traces of leopard in Tusheti. The field works started in July. We fixed 11 photo traps on the territory of Tusheti National Park. Many large mammal species found in the park were captured on the films of our remote sensing cameras. In September the results were as follows: bezoar goat (75), wolf (15), brown bear (5), roe-deer (2), tur (3), and Caucasian snowcock (10). Unfortunately no photos of leopard have been found on the territory so far.

Currently NACRES carries out the analysis of the data collected during the field trip. Monitoring of large mammals with remote sensing cameras continues in Tusheti National Park.

NACRES Witnesses Leopard

10.30 p.m. September 30 - On his way back to the camp Bejan Lortkipanidze, NACRES member together with the two rangers witnessed a leopard close to the Vashlovani cave. This is a fresh new image of Noah captured on the film of our remote sensing camera. See more

"It was extremely dark. Suddenly through the headlights of the car we discerned a strange animal ran in front of us. We were shocked. It was a leopard. It jumped over the bush and disappeared in the gorge," - Bejan Lortkipanidze says.

First Images of Porcupine in Georgia

This video serves as the first documentary evidence of porcupine population living in Georgia. The video was taken in Vashlovani National Park by NACRES remote sensing camera. More

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Otter Video

The project, "Eurasian Otter Research and Conservation in Georgia" launched in 2004 is part of NACRES’ long-term study of the otter population of the Alazani valley (East Georgia). This video was taken in the wild by NACRES’ remote sensing camera. This is the first video of otter in Georgia.

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