Spatial and Temporal Relationships of Adult Male Black Bears to Roads in Northwest Montana, 2003-2004

Chilton-Radandt, Tonya. M.S., Autumn 2006 Spatial and Temporal Relationships of Adult Male Black Bears to Roads in Northwest Montana Chairperson: Dr. Elizabeth Crone Roads have direct and indirect consequences for wildlife. Vehicle collisions are a direct cost of roads on wildlife. Indirectly, roads may increase mortality of game species by increasing hunting pressure along these roads. Adult male black bears (Ursus americanus) are the most desirable age and sex class to many hunters, which may lead to over-harvest of this sex and age class. Road closures (permanently closing or seasonally restricting roads) are used to mitigate impacts of roads on wildlife, including bears. Little is known about how roads affect harvest vulnerability of black bears. I hypothesized that adult male black bears will avoid roads during hunting seasons compared to summer; so road use, and therefore hunting vulnerability, should decrease during hunting times. I used samples of six and ten adult male black bears and evaluated the amount to which these bears avoided roads between seasons. I used ANCOVA to find the effects of season, diel period, and factor interactions on the proportion of bear locations inside a roaded area, the average road density near bear locations, and the average proportion of movements with road crossings. ANCOVA allowed me to account for the confounding of roads and elevation within my study area. Bear distribution proximate to roads differed significantly (p\u3c0.01) between seasons. Specifically, road use - especially of open roads - decreased from nonhunting to hunting seasons for both samples. Bears avoided roads during the fall compared to summer, which may reduce bear vulnerability during the fall hunt. My research neither fully refuted nor supported the question of whether restricting roads appeared to change the effects of season. Although other possible explanations exist, adult male black bears were less likely to be in the roaded area at times when shooting was legal (during the hunting seasons), which is consistent with the idea that they survive to maturity by avoiding the roaded area thus avoiding hunting and traffic

Moose Distribution And Age And Sex Ratios In Northwest Montana As Reported By Hunters At Check Stations

We sought to better document moose (Alces alces) distribution and age and sex ratios in northwest Montana by asking hunters. During the 2010 hunting season we asked all hunters stopping at six check stations if they had seen moose, and if so, where, how many, and if they saw bulls, cows or calves. During the 13 days that check stations were open 17,564 hunters reported 490 sightings totaling 749 moose (313 bulls, 320 cows, 95 calves and 21 unknown) for an average of 1.5 moose per sighting (range 1 - 5). Across all check stations there was an average of 2.8 sightings and 4.3 moose seen per 100 hunters, but this varied from 0.9 sightings and 1.2 moose per 100 hunters at the Swan Check Station to 6.9 sightings and 10.4 moose per 100 hunters at Canoe Gulch. The bulls per 100 cows ratio averaged 98:100 across all check stations but varied from 67:100 at Canoe Gulch to 225:100 at the Swan. Likewise,the calves per 100 cows ratio averaged 30:100 but varied from 8:100 at the Swan to 54:100 at Thompson Falls. Hunter-reported sex and age ratios at the North Fork Check Station agreed with those observed during a post-season helicopter survey in the same area (?2 p = 0.83), but hunter-reported ratios at Olney were significantly higher than those observed by helicopter (?2 p = 0.01). We discuss the difficulty of monitoring moose populations and the pros and cons of helicopter surveys and hunter-reported moose sightings

Conservation of Threatened Canada-USA Trans-border Grizzly Bears Linked to Comprehensive Conflict Reduction

Mortality resulting from human–wildlife conflicts affects wildlife populations globally. Since 2004, we have been researching conservation issues and implementing a comprehensive program to reduce human–bear conflicts (Ursus spp.; HBC) for 3 small, fragmented, and threatened grizzly bear (U. arctos) populations in the trans-border region of southwest Canada and northwest USA. We explored the temporal and spatial patterns of conflict mortality and found that HBC contributed significantly to the threatened status of these populations by causing decline, fragmentation, and decreased habitat effectiveness. Our program to reduce HBCs primarily included strategic private lands purchased to reduce human density in wildlife corridors, the reduction of bear attractants where human settlement and agriculture exists, and the nonlethal management of conflict bears. Attractant management strategies encompassed public education, cost-share electric fencing, bear-resistant garbage containers, and deadstock containment. We taught bear safety courses and bear spray training to increase tolerance and give people tools to avoid negative encounters with bears. We radio-collared and used nonlethal management on potential conflict bears and have a ~75% success rate in that the bear was alive and out of conflict situations over the life of the radio-collar. We identified important backcountry grizzly bear foraging habitat for motorized access control to reduce conflict and mortality and provide habitat security to reproductive females. Ongoing monitoring has demonstrated that our comprehensive HBC program has resulted in a significant reduction in human-caused mortality, increased inter-population connectivity, and improved habitat effectiveness. Several challenges remain, however, including an increase in the numbers of young grizzly bears living adjacent to agricultural areas. Herein we discuss strategies for how to integrate conservation vision into future HBC reduction programs

The bear circadian clock doesn’t ‘sleep’ during winter dormancy

Most biological functions are synchronized to the environmental light:dark cycle via a circadian timekeeping system. Bears exhibit shallow torpor combined with metabolic suppression during winter dormancy. We sought to confirm that free-running circadian rhythms of body temperature (Tb) and activity were expressed in torpid grizzly (brown) bears and that they were functionally responsive to environmental light. We also measured activity and ambient light exposures in denning wild bears to determine if rhythms were evident and what the photic conditions of their natural dens were. Lastly, we used cultured skin fibroblasts obtained from captive torpid bears to assess molecular clock operation in peripheral tissues. Circadian parameters were estimated using robust wavelet transforms and maximum entropy spectral analyses

American Black Bear Population Fragmentation Determined Through Pedigrees in the Trans-Border Canada-United States Region

Fragmentation of species with large numbers of individuals in adjacent areas can be challenging to detect using genetic tools as there often is no differentiation because genetic drift occurs very slowly. We used a genetic-based pedigree analysis to detect fragmentation in the American black bear (Ursus americanus) across 2 highways with large adjacent populations. We used 20 locus microsatellite genotypes to detect parent-offspring and full sibling pairs within a sample of 388 black bears. We used the spatial patterns of capture locations of these first order relatives relative to US Highway 2 in northwest Montana and Highway 3 in southeast British Columbia to estimate the number of close relatives sampled across the highways (migrants/km of highway length) as an index of fragmentation. We compared these values to an expected migrant/km rate derived from the mean values of simulated fractures in the Highway 2 and Highway 3 region. We found evidence that these highway corridors were fragmenting black bear populations, but not completely. The observed migrant/km rate for Highway 2 was 0.05, while the expected rate was 0.21 migrants/km. Highway 3 had an observed migrant/km rate of 0.09 compared to the expected rate of 0.26. None of the 16 bears carrying GPS radio collars for 1 year crossed Highway 2, yet 6 of 18 crossed Highway 3. Pedigree and telemetry results were more closely aligned in the Highway 2 system evidencing more intense fragmentation than we found along Highway 3. Our results demonstrate that pedigree analysis may be a useful tool for investigating population fragmentation in situations where genetic signals of differentiation are too weak to determine migration rates using individual-based methods, such as population assignment

Domain-based perceptions of risk:a case study of lay and technical community attitudes towards managed aquifer recharge

Despite growing water scarcity, communities in many parts of the developed world often reject technically and economically sound options for water augmentation. This paper reports findings from a study investigating risk perceptions associated with a proposed Managed Aquifer Recharge scheme in Australia. Q-Methodology was used to compare decision-making frameworks of lay community and „technical expert‟ participants. Technical expert participants were also asked to approximate the decision-making framework of a „typical‟ community member. The emerging contrasts between lay community frameworks and those approximated by technical experts suggest that there are prevailing yet errant assumptions about lay community attitudes towards new technologies. The findings challenge the characterisation of the lay community and technical experts as being in entrenched opposition with one another

Habituated, Tolerant, or Salt-conditioned Mountain Goats and Human Safety

Interactions between humans and wildlife include a number of consumptive and non-consumptive forms. In some cases, the increased demand for wildlife viewing can precipitate new human–wildlife conflicts. Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus; goats) are native to a number of North American mountain ranges from southeastern Alaska to southwestern Montana, USA. Goat habitat typically consists of steep terrain and cold weather habitats, which has left them particularly vulnerable to climate change. Their alpine environments also make them vulnerable to disturbance by aircraft and land-based motorized human activity. We reviewed and characterized situations in which goats in close proximity to humans on foot may become a nuisance or dangerous to people. We identify how such interactions might occur, focusing on the array of intensity observed in different settings. We summarize and evaluate interventions that have been attempted and may warrant additional research. Goats that tolerate people along hiking trails, perhaps through a habituation-like process, can typically be kept at a safe distance simply by shouting, clapping hands, or vigorous gestures. Goats that have learned to associate people with a salt reward (e.g., typically urine deposited on the ground, less frequently sweat obtained directly by licking) are more likely to be successfully hazed by tossing small stones, hitting the animal in the flank or rear. Salt-conditioned goats sometimes come within touching distance of humans; we strongly advise against prodding or poking these animals with sharp objects such as trekking poles. The recreating public that ventures into goat habitat is the ultimate source of these conflicts. Education, compliance, and possibly some infrastructure improvements can lessen the potential for conflicts and provide new and safer opportunities to view goats

Report from UCSF.

Table S1. Body weights (kg) of captive bears just prior to entering winter dormancy. (PDF 630 kb