Since Slovenia declared independence, the landowners, similarly to other European post-communist countries, want the hunting right to be a property right that is tied to land, as it is the case in many western European countries. In this way, the landowners would have the right to hunt on their land. Our hypothesis was, that it is more difficult to maintain the protected large carnivores (brown bear, wolf and lynx) on areas where landlords have the right to hunt. Such regulations allow the landlords to enjoy greater autonomy there, as well as an ownership status attached to all wild life, including the protected. To examine the effects of hunting rights regulations on the status of the large carnivores, we analyzed a raster environment of 10 % 10 km in twenty-five European countries with different hunting right regulations, where the hunting right is either a property right, or it is regulated by a supreme state body. Additional to hunting rights, other factors were included into the research, such as habitat rights, socio-economic factors, and other that could influence the situation of large carnivores. We found out, that the habitat suitability has the largest influence on the presence of large carnivores, followed by the population density, and the status of a protected area. The presence of the bear and the wolf is lower where the hunting rights are tied to the land. There was no significant impact on the presence of the lynx. A legislation change in Slovenia might therefore decrease the level of tolerance towards large carnivores and have negative influence on their population.
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