Progress Toward Grizzly Bear Recovery: The Current Status of Grizzlies in the Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems

The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) was listed as a threatened species in the lower 48 states in 1975. Formal recovery efforts started in 1981 with the completion of the first Recovery Plan. The state and federal agencies, tribes, and Canadian provinces were organized in 1983 into a cooperative structure called the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee to work together to implement the Recovery Plan. At the time of listing, the exact number of grizzly bears was unknown but probable numbers in the Yellowstone ecosystem were approximately 250, in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) approximately 400. In 2012, population estimates in the Yellowstone ecosystem are approximately 700 and approximately 1000 in the NCDE. Both of these populations appear to be approaching the carrying capacity of their ecosystems as evidenced by reduced subadult survival in the core areas of the Yellowstone ecosystem and dispersal of primarily subadults into peripheral habitats in both ecosystems. The expanding range and numbers of grizzlies is resulting in re-occupancy of habitats in Montana where grizzly bears had been extirpated for over 100 years. The objective of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to get listed species to the point at which protection of the ESA is no longer required. We review progress toward recovery and delisting and the reasons the grizzlies in these ecosystems have recovered including mortality control, habitat management, nuisance bear management, and outreach and education. We also describe future management once recovery and delisting have been achieved and how this management will assure the long-term future of this species in Montana

From the Temperate Zone to the Tropic–Sun Bear Research and Conservation from Montana to Borneo

Originally found throughout Southeast Asia, sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are the least known bear and remain poorly studied. We initiated one of the first ecological studies of the sun bear in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo starting in 1998. This research has continued since then and has expanded to include conservation actions that respond to key findings. Our research documented the life history and ecology of the sun bear in the tropical rainforest and highlighted serious conservation concerns for the species. Sun bear numbers are decreasing in Borneo and the rest of Southeast Asia from habitat loss and illegal hunting for food and medicine. Poaching sun bears for body parts and capturing sun bear cubs for the pet trade has resulted in many orphaned sun bears. In addition to these direct human pressures, we documented the impact of environmental variability on sun bears in Malaysia when we observed an unusual famine event in Borneo in 1999-2000. Studied sun bears suffered from severe emaciation and even death. The famine event was related to abnormal climatic events of El Nino and La Nina Southern Oscillation that disrupted the mast fruiting activities in the forest. In response to the many conservation issues facing sun bears in Malaysia, Siew Te Wong founded the Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) in 2008. The BSBCC aims to conserve sun bears by rehabilitating orphaned bears, providing long-term care for captive bears, conducting education and outreach activities, and serving as a base for sun bear research

Grizzly Bear Restoration in the North Cascades of Washington

The North Cascades of Washington was one of 6 recovery areas where grizzly bears were known or believed to exist at the time of listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1975.  The North Cascades recovery plan identified the need for a National Environmental Policy Act process to evaluate a range of alternatives to restore this grizzly bear population.  In January of 2017 the Draft Grizzly Bear Restoration Plan for the North Cascades Ecosystem was released for public comment by the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  This plan evaluated four alternatives for population restoration. Alternative A was “No Action” with continued existing management practices focused on improved sanitation, poaching control, motorized access, education, and monitoring to evaluate natural restoration.  Alternative B was “Ecosystem Evaluation Restoration” which would transplant up to 10 grizzly bears to the North Cascades and monitor those individuals for 2 years before deciding whether to proceed with additional releases. Alternative C was “Incremental Restoration” in which 5-7 grizzly bears per year would be transplanted to the North Cascades to achieve an initial population of 25 individuals. Monitoring would determine success of the program and the need for additional releases of bears. Alternative D was “Expedited Restoration” in which 5-7 grizzly bears/year would be transplanted to the North Cascades until a population of approximately 200 individuals was achieved. All action alternatives possess an experimental (ESA 10j) population option. The draft document is available for review and comment through March 14, 2017 at:  https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=4414

The Swan Valley Grizzly Bear Conservation Agreement: A Case History of Collaborative Landscape Management

The Swan Valley Grizzly Bear Conservation Agreement (SVGBCA) was initiated in 1995 between the USDI Fish and Wildlife Service, Flathead National Forest, Plum Creek Timber Company and the Montana Dept. of Natural Resources and Conservation to address grizzly bear habitat management concerns on ~ 370,000 ac of intermingled ownership located between the Mission Mountain and Bob Marshall Wilderness areas in northwestern Montana. The general objective of the SVGBCA is to implement a multi-landowner management plan that would contribute to the conservation of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) while still allowing cooperating landowners to realize the economic benefits of their lands. The specific biological goals are to maintain connectivity between the Bob Marshall and Mission Mountain wildernesses and minimize the risk of death or injury to grizzly bears using suitable habitat within the valley. The general conservation approach is to designate linkage zones to facilitate bear movement between wilderness areas, rotate forestry activities in the landscape to minimize disturbance, limit open road densities, and implement habitat management guidelines at the landscape and site-specific levels. Research and monitoring was initiated in 2002 with the inclusion of MDFWP in telemetry studies of grizzly bears using the SVGBCA. Detail on SVGBCA implementation and effectiveness monitoring is presented. Key findings are that connectivity objectives are being met regarding both east-west connections between the wilderness areas and north-south movements between important habitats outside the Swan Valley. Bears stayed in the Swan Valley generally, with little altitudinal migration. Grizzlies used all ownerships in the valley and habitat use varied between nocturnal and diurnal activity periods. High levels of mortality were documented in 2003 and 2004. Landownership changes within the 15-year-old SVGBCA resulting from the Montana Legacy Conservation Land Sale are discussed

Grizzly Bear Population Augmentation In The Cabinet Mountains Of Northwest Montana Wayne Kasworm,* USDA Fish and Wildlife Service, Libby

The Cabinet Mountains grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) population was estimated at 15 or fewer individuals in 1988 and believed to be declining toward extinction. In response to this decline, a test of population augmentation techniques was conducted during 1990- 1994 when four subadult female grizzly bears were transplanted to the area. Two criteria were identified as measures of success: bears must remain in the target area for one year, and bears should ultimately breed with native male grizzly bears and reproduce. Reproductive success of any of the remaining individuals could not be established until 2006 when genetic analysis of hair snag samples collected from 2002-2005 indicated that one of the transplanted bears remained in the Cabinet Mountains and had reproduced. The detected bear was transplanted in 1993 as a 2-year-old and was identified by a hair snag within 5 mi of the original release site. Genetic analysis indicated she had produced at least six offspring, and two of her female offspring had also reproduced. This reproduction indicates that the original test of augmentation was successful with at least one of the transplanted individuals. Success of the grizzly bear augmentation test prompted continuation of this effort. The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem area of north central Montana has been the source of seven additional bears transplanted to the Cabinet Mountains during 2005-2010. All were female bears except one: a young male was moved in 2010. Two female bears were killed and two female bears left the area. Fates and movements of these bears are discussed

Montana’s Winter Bat Roost and White-Nose Syndrome Surveillance Efforts (Oral Presentation and Poster)

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), caused by the cold-adapted soil fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has killed an estimated 5.7 to 6.7 million bats in eastern North America since 2006 and has spread westward to states along the Mississippi River corridor as well as the province of Ontario.  With at least 9 of Montana’s 15 known bat species facing potentially devastating increases in mortality from WNS, a collaborative effort was initiated in the fall of 2011 to document the species composition, number, degree of clustering, and roost temperatures and humidities of bats winter roosting in caves and mines.  To-date, collaborators have surveyed over 50 caves and mines, deploying over 30 temperature and relative humidity data loggers near winter roosting bats; most known bat hibernacula In Montana are now being monitored.  Most caves and mines surveyed to date support only small numbers of winter roosting bats; typically less than ten roosting in isolation or clusters of two to three.  A handful of caves have 50-1750 winter roosting bats with clusters of up to 40 individuals.  Many of the caves that have been surveyed have temperatures and humidities that appear to be capable of supporting P. destructans, but PCR-based testing of bat and substrate swabs have tested negative for its presence so far.  The majority of Montana bats apparently winter roost away from mines or caves that are accessible to, or known by, humans and these roosts need to be located and assessed for their ability to support P. destructans

Montana’s Winter Bat Roost and White-Nose Syndrome Surveillance Efforts (Oral Presentation and Poster)

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), caused by the cold-adapted soil fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has killed an estimated 5.7 to 6.7 million bats in eastern North America since 2006 and has spread westward to states along the Mississippi River corridor as well as the province of Ontario.  With at least 9 of Montana’s 15 known bat species facing potentially devastating increases in mortality from WNS, a collaborative effort was initiated in the fall of 2011 to document the species composition, number, degree of clustering, and roost temperatures and humidities of bats winter roosting in caves and mines.  To-date, collaborators have surveyed over 50 caves and mines, deploying over 30 temperature and relative humidity data loggers near winter roosting bats; most known bat hibernacula in Montana are now being monitored.  Most caves and mines surveyed to date support only small numbers of winter roosting bats; typically less than ten roosting in isolation or clusters of two to three.  A handful of caves have 50-1750 winter roosting bats with clusters of up to 40 individuals.  Many of the caves that have been surveyed have temperatures and humidities that appear to be capable of supporting P. destructans, but PCR-based testing of bat and substrate swabs have tested negative for its presence so far.  The majority of Montana bats apparently winter roost away from mines or caves that are accessible to, or known by, humans and these roosts need to be located and assessed for their ability to support P. destructans

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

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