Brown bear habitat use patterns across 19 years of population expansion in the Cantabrian Mountains

Abstract

Context Large carnivores have faced severe extinction pressures throughout Europe during the last centuries, where human-induced disturbances reached unprecedented levels. In the late twentieth century, the Cantabrian brown bear population was on the verge of extinction, due to poaching. Yet, the end of the last century was a turning point for this population. Presence data on the western Cantabrian subpopulation was collected since the beginning of the century and insights provided by this long-term monitoring may be useful for brown bear conservation. Objectives Here, we aim to: (i) identify the landscape features relevant to bears’ recovery; and (ii) understand if and how the landscape use patterns by bears changed over time. Methods We tested the influence of landscape structure (i.e., composition and configuration) on bear occurrence patterns using MAXENT in three periods representative of land cover change. Results Despite variation across the 19-year monitoring period, brown bears were more often detected near broad-leaf forests and bare rock areas and at lower to intermediate altitudes, but avoided arable lands, permanent crops, and burnt areas. Human population density or distance to roads—often used for modelling habitat suitability for Cantabrian brown bears—were not identified as relevant variables for this brown bear subpopulation. Artificial areas were identified as relevant landscape features, but not as disturbance. Conclusions These findings reinforce the importance of preserving bears’ native habitats and provide new insights, namely on the use of humanized landscapes.