Conservationists yesterday placed a tracking collar around the neck of a young brown bear – one of 10 that are to be monitored via satellite technology as road construction gets under way near their natural habitat in the mountains of central and northern Greece.

The collar donned by the two-and-a-half-year-old bear contains a radio transmitter that emits a signal every two hours, allowing experts to track its movements. The collar has been made to last two years – until the bears reach adulthood – after which it falls off, said experts at the Arcturos Bear Sanctuary.

The sanctuary chose to study the bears in the mountains of Grevena and Trikala as the junction of the Egnatia Highway and another road is being built there and it wants to monitor the impact of this development on the bears. Some 30 brown bears have been monitored over the past decade.