scholarly journals Towns and Trails Drive Carnivore Connectivity using a Step Selection Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Whittington ◽  
Robin Baron ◽  
Mark Hebblewhite ◽  
Adam T. Ford ◽  
John Paczkowski
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Animal Movement ◽  
Reference Conditions ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Gray Wolf ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Movement Models ◽  
Step Selection Functions ◽  
Step Selection

AbstractGlobal increases in human activity threaten connectivity of animal populations. Protection and restoration of animal movement corridors requires robust models to forecast the effects of human activity on connectivity. Recent advances in the field of animal movement ecology and step selection functions offer new approaches for estimating connectivity. We show how a combination of hidden Markov movement models and step selection functions can be used to simulate realistic movement paths with multiple behavioral states. Simulated paths can be used to generate utilization distributions and estimate changes in connectivity for multiple land use scenarios. We applied movement models to 20 years of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) and gray wolf (Canis lupus) data collected in and around Banff National Park, Canada. These carnivores avoided areas near towns in all seasons, avoided areas of high trail density in most seasons, and campgrounds during summer and fall. We simulated movement paths for three landscape scenarios: reference conditions with no anthropogenic development, current conditions, and future conditions with expanded town footprints and trail networks. We counted the number of paths that crossed valley-wide, digital transects through mountain tourist towns of Banff and Canmore, Alberta. We divided current and future crossing rates by the reference crossing rates to estimate connectivity. Current connectivity rates ranged between 7 and 45% of reference values with an average of 21% for grizzly bears and 25% for wolves. Potential town expansion and increased development of trails further decreased connectivity an average of 6% in future scenarios. Anthropogenic developments reduced the amount of available high quality large carnivore habitat in the Bow Valley by an average of 14% under current conditions and 16% under future conditions. Our approach for estimating connectivity provides a robust and flexible method for combining movement models with step selection analyses to estimate connectivity for a variety of species.

Grizzly bear movements relative to roads: application of step selection functions

Ecography ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 1113-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie L. Roever ◽  
Mark S. Boyce ◽  
Gordon B. Stenhouse
Keyword(s):  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Step Selection Functions ◽  
Step Selection

Road visibility influences habitat selection by grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Marie Parsons ◽  
Nicholas C Coops ◽  
Sean P Kearney ◽  
Cole Burton ◽  
Trisalyn A Nelson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Selection ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Grizzly Bears ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Ursus Arctos Horribilis ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Step Selection ◽  
Animal Habitat

Anthropogenic disturbances, including roads, are known to influence animal habitat selection and mortality. In this study, we consider the role of sensory perception in understanding why and how animals respond to disturbances. Our goal was to investigate the effect of visual perception (visibility) around roads on grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis Ord, 1815) habitat selection and mortality in Alberta, Canada. We used detailed topographic and vegetation data from airborne Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) to estimate visibility around roads. We modelled habitat selection as a function of road visibility and environmental variables using GPS telemetry data from 39 grizzly bears and integrated step selection analysis (iSSA). Finally, we assessed mortality risk in visible areas by comparing habitat selection between grizzly bears that died and those that survived. We found that grizzly bears were less likely to select visible areas when moving slowly or resting, but more likely to select visible areas when traveling. We found that grizzly bears that survived selected for areas farther from roads than grizzly bears that died. However, no difference in selection for visible areas was observed. An exploratory analysis showed that grizzly bear mortalities commonly occurred in visible areas. Our findings highlight the importance of sensory perception in understanding animal behaviour.

Visualising uncertainty in radio-telemetry wildlife-tracking data to aid better study design

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Etherington ◽  
Stéphane Pietravalle ◽  
Dave P. Cowan
Keyword(s):  
Study Design ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Animal Movement ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Movement Speed ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Location Error ◽  
Point Location ◽  
Maximum Range ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Context. Animal movements recorded by radio-telemetry produce a series of spatio-temporal point-location estimates that sample an animal’s continuous track. However, uncertainty in the point locations themselves, and uncertainty of how the animal moved between locations, could be large enough to render data unsuitable for some purposes. Aims. Our objective was to develop a method that would visualise these uncertainties by calculating the maximum range of possible movements around the sampled point locations, given different probabilities of point-location error and animal-movement speed. By visualising the uncertainties, we hope to aid better study design. Methods. To quantify the probability of different levels of uncertainty, we use a probability density function (PDF) of point-location error and movement speed. By choosing a cut-off probability on each PDF, ellipses can be drawn for consecutive pairs of point-location estimates, which when combined show the maximum range of possible movements at those specific cut-off probabilities of location error and movement speed. We demonstrate how to establish the PDFs and apply the methodology by using an example of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) radio-telemetry data. Key results. By establishing a range of probability cut-offs within each PDF, it is possible to visualise the area within which a grizzly bear could have moved under different combinations of those cut-offs. Conclusions. Comparison of the potential maximum range of possible movements, under different combinations of probability cut-offs, enables the relative importance of each source of uncertainty to be evaluated. Acquiring data from intense sampling would be particularly useful in providing robust information on likely movement speeds. Implications. This approach could be used during study design and testing to prioritise efforts towards reducing uncertainty in the point-location estimates, and uncertainty of where the animal moved between locations to ensure the radio-telemetry method used is appropriate for the study’s objectives.

scholarly journals Gray Wolf Prey Base Ecology in the North Fork of the Flathead River Drainage

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 103-104
Author(s):  
C. Marcum ◽  
Daniel Pletscher ◽  
Michael Bureau ◽  
John Weigand
Keyword(s):  
Cervus Elaphus ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Age Distribution ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Gray Wolf ◽  
River Drainage ◽  
Felis Concolor ◽  
The North ◽  
North Fork ◽  
Flathead River

During the reporting period, major goals of this project were to monitor elk (Cervus elaphus) in the North Fork of the Flathead River Drainage for mortality, monitor seasonal distribution and determine key areas of use, establish a repeatable index of elk abundance, and determine age/sex composition. Two radio collared elk have died during the last six months. Both elk were killed in May by mountain lions (Felis concolor). This brings the mortality totals to seven elk killed by lions, two by wolves (Canis lupus), one by grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), and one by a hunter (n=34 radio-collared elk). Lions killed elk throughout the age distribution. Wolves took a calf and an old elk. The hunter killed a prime-aged elk, while the grizzly killed a 16-year-old elk.

scholarly journals Characterizing Off-Highway Road Use with Remote-Sensing, Social Media and Crowd-Sourced Data: An Application to Grizzly Bear (Ursus Arctos) Habitat

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2547
Author(s):  
Sean P. Kearney ◽  
Terrence A. Larsen ◽  
Tristan R. H. Goodbody ◽  
Nicholas C. Coops ◽  
Gordon B. Stenhouse
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Travel Speed ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Habitat Integrity ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Management Area

Characterizing roads is important for conservation since the relationship between road use and ecological impact can vary across species. However, road use is challenging to monitor due to limited data and high spatial-temporal variability, especially for unpaved roads, which often coincide with critical habitats. In this study, we developed and evaluated two methods to characterize off-highway road use across a large management area of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) habitat using: (1) a ‘network-based’ approach to connect human activity hotspots identified from social media posts and remotely detected disturbances and (2) an ‘image-based’ approach, in which we modeled road surface conditions and travel speed from high spatial resolution satellite imagery trained with crowd-sourced smartphone data. To assess the differences between these approaches and their utility for characterizing roads in the context of habitat integrity, we evaluated how behavioural patterns of global positioning system (GPS)-collared grizzly bears were related to road use characterized by these methods compared to (a) assuming all roads have equal human activity and (b) using a ‘reference’ road classification from a government database. The network- and image-based methods showed similar patterns of road use and grizzly bear response compared to the reference, and all three revealed nocturnal behaviour near high-use roads and better predicted grizzly bear habitat selection compared to assuming all roads had equal human activity. The network- and image-based methods show promise as cost-effective approaches to characterize road use for conservation applications where data is not available.

scholarly journals Incorporating animal spatial memory in step selection functions

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 516-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Gustavo R. Oliveira-Santos ◽  
James D. Forester ◽  
Ubiratan Piovezan ◽  
Walfrido M. Tomas ◽  
Fernando A. S. Fernandez
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Step Selection Functions ◽  
Step Selection

A grizzly bear from the Middle Wisconsin of Woodbridge, Ontario

1976 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles S. Churcher ◽  
Alan V. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Grizzly Bears ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Bone Fragment ◽  
Mammuthus Primigenius ◽  
Ursus Arctos Horribilis ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Lake Simcoe ◽  
Left Humerus ◽  
Woolly Mammoth

The distal end of the left humerus of a grizzly bear, Ursus arctos, has been recovered from above the Early Wisconsin Sunnybrook Till at Woodbridge, Ontario, from the same horizon that previously has yielded remains of the woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius. The age of these specimens is estimated at 40 000–50 000 years BP, within the mid-Wisconsin, Port Talbot Interstadial. The only other recognized Canadian record of a grizzly bear east of Manitoba is from a gravel sequence at Barrie, near Lake Simcoe, Ontario, dated from a bone fragment to 11 700 ± 250 years BP. A specimen recovered in Toronto in 1913 from an Early Wisconsin horizon is also considered to represent the grizzly. Bears of the grizzly type, Ursus arctos-horribilis were present in Ontario before and after the Early and Late Wisconsin ice advances.

scholarly journals Gray Wolves, Canis lupus, Killed by Cougars, Puma concolor, and a Grizzly Bear, Ursus arctos, in Montana, Alberta, and Wyoming

2008 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Jimenez ◽  
Valpa J. Asher ◽  
Carita Bergman ◽  
Edward E. Bangs ◽  
Susannah P. Woodruff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Canis Lupus ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Puma Concolor ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Grey Wolf ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Large Predators

Four cases where large predators caused Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) mortality are recorded. We describe two incidents of Cougars (Puma concolar) killing Wolves in Montana and one incident of a Cougar killing a Wolf in Alberta. We report the first recorded incident of a Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos) killing a Wolf in the western United States.

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