Movements of Black Bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Garshelis, David L.; Pelton, Michael R.

doi:10.2307/3808099

Cited by 174 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…American black bears are known to alter their activity and movements among seasons (Amstrup and Beecham 1976, Garshelis and Pelton 1981, Garshelis et al 1983, Bridges et al 2004. We also observed seasonal changes in daily activity rhythms, but the patterns we observed were different than previously reported.…”

Section: Temporal Effectscontrasting

confidence: 50%

Behavioral and physiological responses of American black bears to landscape features within an agricultural region

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Human activities and variation in habitat quality and configuration have been shown to influence space use patterns in many species, but few studies have documented the physiological responses of free-ranging animals to these factors. We combined remote biologger technology, capturing continuous heart rate values, with locational data from GPS collars to investigate the behavioral and physiological reactions of American black bears (Ursus americanus) to a landscape dominated by agriculture (52.5% areal cover). Our study occurred at the edge of the range of this species, with small, scattered patches of forest within a mosaic of crop fields and an extensive road network. However, only ;2-4% of the area contained crops that bears consumed (corn, sunflowers, oats). We used GPS locations to identify the habitat that bears occupied, and to estimate their rates of travel. Heart rates increased with movement rates, rising by over 30% from resting rate to their fastest travel speeds. We used a modeling approach to distinguish among factors that influenced heart rates independent of movement rates. Bears commonly crossed agricultural areas that provided no food or cover and their heart rates, elevated beyond what was expected from their movement rate, were indicative of a stress response. However, when bears entered agricultural areas composed of edible crops, many individuals showed reduced movement and slower heart rates, suggesting that bears foraging there felt at ease or crops allow bears to more easily forage due to their dense spatial arrangements. Unexpectedly, female bears elicited lower heart rates and lower levels of activity in the most fragmented patches of natural habitat, possibly a sign of humanavoidance behavior or a reaction related to crossing roads. During fall, as bears prepared for hibernation, their heart rates declined two weeks before their movements slackened, evidence that metabolism slowed to enhance fat accumulation; they also shifted to a nocturnal activity pattern, likely to reduce exertion during the heat of the day. The use of a physiological monitor provided new insights on bear biology and ecology that would not have otherwise been apparent.

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Section: Temporal Effectscontrasting

confidence: 50%

Behavioral and physiological responses of American black bears to landscape features within an agricultural region

et al. 2015

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“…These data documenting movement between bear populations support genetic inferences that black bears in northern Mexico and western Texas exist in a metapopulation structure linked by dispersal (Onorato, 2003). Data from mitochondrial DNA sequences indicated that extant differentiation among these populations is maintained by a single female disperser approximately every 12 years (Onorato et al, 2004 Excursions by black bears from spring-summer ranges to clumped and abundant food supplies in autumn are well-described (Garshelis and Pelton, 1981;LeCount et al, 1984;Smith, 1985;Rogers, 1987;Hellgren and Vaughan, 1990). These movements were considered seasonal migrations because bears typically returned to their resident ranges.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of a black bear population within a desert metapopulation

Hellgren

Onorato

Skiles

2005

Biological Conservation

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Abstract:Understanding metapopulation dynamics in large carnivores with naturally fragmented populations is difficult because of the large temporal and spatial context of such dynamics. We coupled a long-term database of visitor sighting records with an intensive 3-year telemetry study to km for females (n = 7) and 92 km for males (n = 4), and 3 animals conducted migrations of at least 154, 178, and 214 km, respectively. Our observations exemplify the importance of stochastic events on demographics of small populations and highlight the potential scale of bear movement among montane islands of southwestern North America. They also provide insight into the use of dispersal data in parameterizing metapopulation models for large carnivores.

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“…Disturbed areas such as roads and urban areas (mostly because of the attraction provided by trash) were important in Texas, so we included distance to roads, cropland, and urban habitats to account for these disturbed areas (Hellgren et al 1991;Onorato et al 2003). Two studies in other jurisdictions found that bears favored areas near water, so we included distance to water sources in our model (Garshelis and Pelton 1981;LeCount and Yarchin 1990). Woodland and sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri) shrublands were found to be important landcovers for resource and food selection by Black Bears in this region (Hellgren 1993), so we included the availability of these landcover types as candidate variables.…”

Section: Landcover Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat-Distribution Modeling of a Recolonizing Black Bear, <em>Ursus americanus</em>, Population in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas

et al. 2009

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Black Bears (Ursus americanus) were once widespread across Texas, but their numbers were reduced in the early 1900s. Recolonization of the Trans-Pecos region of Texas has occurred via bears migrating northward from Mexico. Recent bear sightings have increased in this area. This could be an indication that the population in Texas is beginning to recover, but the population will continue to expand only if there is suitable habitat to occupy. To help identify suitable habitat and restoration areas, we developed a predictive habitat-distribution model by using records of Black Bear sightings from 1996 to 2003 to map the species' distribution. Using Bayesian statistics, we modeled the probability of occurrence of Black Bears in the Trans-Pecos region based on sighting locations. We used GIS layers for land use/landcover, elevation, water sources, and road networks to obtain covariates in our modeling. We used a 10-fold cross-validation to test the effectiveness of using sighting data. Our results indicated a negative association with bare areas, agriculture, and grassland landcovers. In addition, southern aspect, elevation, distance to water, slope, and western aspect also influenced suitable habitat. Both the original and validation datasets correctly classified bear sightings 93.9% and 93.7% of the time, respectively. Our model can be used to target restoration efforts to enhance the ability of the Black Bear to expand in the Trans-Pecos region. It can also identify private landowners most likely to be affected by the expansion of Black Bears for education and cooperative efforts.

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Movements of Black Bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Cited by 174 publications

References 17 publications

Behavioral and physiological responses of American black bears to landscape features within an agricultural region

Behavioral and physiological responses of American black bears to landscape features within an agricultural region

Dynamics of a black bear population within a desert metapopulation

Habitat-Distribution Modeling of a Recolonizing Black Bear, <em>Ursus americanus</em>, Population in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas

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