Assessing dual hair sampling for isotopic studies of grizzly bears

Gaining insight into the assimilated diet of small bear populations by stable isotope analysis

“…Further studies should be conducted to better understand some unsolved aspects of the feeding ecology of Apennine bears, and in particular the relative contribution of wild vs domestic ungulates or the contribution www.nature.com/scientificreports/ of other anthropogenic foods (i.e., poultry, beehives, crops). In addition, future SIA applications to this bear population could benefit from enhanced statistical power by adding to mixing models covariates such as age and body condition, by using additional tracers (e.g., δ 34 S 25,40,50 ), by including a larger number of management bears in the sample, and by adopting longer study periods to account for inter-annual variability in the productivity of bear key foods.…”