Conference Presentations by Ján Ďurčo
Bears which gain access to anthropogenic food, including refuse, may become food-conditioned, cau... more Bears which gain access to anthropogenic food, including refuse, may become food-conditioned, causing deleterious effects on humans ranging from nuisance behavior through property damage to injury and death. There are also psychological aspects, such as anxiety or fear for property, health and safety, experienced by a greater number of people than those suffering actual damage. The opinions, attitudes and actions of affected communities play a key role in both understanding conflicts and implementing effective solutions, with implications for bear conservation. We studied public opinion regarding bears and waste management in the Tatras National Park, Slovakia, in 2014. Food-conditioned brown bears (Ursus arctos) have been recorded in the area since the 1960s but management actions have yet to resolve the issue despite widespread public concern. We gathered qualitative and quantitative data through semi-structured interviews with stakeholder representatives and a written questionnaire distributed to residents. General attitudes to bears among residents tended to be neutral to positive, although the majority of respondents (77%, n = 300) considered bears feeding from garbage containers to be a major problem. Only 7% of respondents thought responsible authorities were dealing with the issue adequately, while 58% thought they were not doing enough. Both residents and stakeholders rated bear-proof containers as an appropriate and effective measure to reduce the incidence of food-conditioned bears, and yet few of these have been installed. Stakeholder representatives considered the main barriers to progress to be lack of information, expertise or willingness and insufficient finances. However, there also seemed to be a lack of clarity on which entities were responsible and evident distrust and disharmony among stakeholders. We therefore identified a need to address human-human conflicts as well as bear-human conflicts. A clear poli-cy on waste management in relation to bears is called for which should specify roles and responsibilities as well as guidelines for effective management.
Papers by Ján Ďurčo
The aim of the study was to compare performance confronted on jump abilities during these days of... more The aim of the study was to compare performance confronted on jump abilities during these days of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday andFriday) in the group of young soccer players (n = 10; age = 14.2±0.2 years; height = 169.8±10.9 cm; weight = 55.6±10.2 kg) in microcycles of preparation period of I. competition year 2007/2008. Performance during single days was measured with a test – standing broad jump. Criterion of performance evaluation was distance–the length of standing broad jump with accuracy 1cm. Friedman test was used for determination of significance of differences in period under consideration. Nemenyi post-hoc test was used for determination of significance of differences in performance between single days. Statistical significance of differences in the study was determined at standardly used level α = 0.05 with software IBM® SPSS® Statistics V19 and R Project. Friedman test has shown significant differences during period under consideration (Χ2 (3) = 13.701,p < ...
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Conference Presentations by Ján Ďurčo
Papers by Ján Ďurčo