Seasonal changes in elevation and habitat use of the Asiatic black bear (<i>Ursus thibetanus</i>) in the Northern Japan Alps

Abstract

Abstract. Habitat use by Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) was examined in the Northern Japan Alps where distinct changes in the vegetation occur with elevation. Seven bears (three males and four females) were radio-tracked for five years. Home range size varied from 32 to 123 km 2 , and bears used habitats at elevations between 600 m and 3,000 m. Bears used higher elevations (2,100 to 2,300 m) in summer (from July 1 to September 10), and lower elevations (1,000 to 1,500 m) in autumn (three months after September 10). Bears foraged in subalpine birch forests, avalanche chutes, or the alpine zone in summer, but moved to the deciduous broad-leaved forests of the montane zone in autumn. Bears spent little time in mid-elevation (2,000 m) coniferous forests. Seasonal movements among habitats at different elevations are likely necessary for survival in marginal alpine habitats.

An evaluation of habitat selection of Asiatic black bears in a season of prevalent conflicts

“…We scheduled Televilt GPS collars (Televilt Inc., Stockholm, Sweden) to obtain locations every 15 minutes. We defined summer as 1 July-10 September on the basis of the dietary features of black bears (Izumiyama and Shiraishi 2004). To build the RSF model, hourly GPS location data were used to predict bear summer habitat selection.…”

“…Studies of bear food resources are often conducted without addressing spatial attributes and, as a result, scientific knowledge of landscape features of Asiatic black bear habitat is very limited (Carr et al 2002, Hwang et al 2002, Huygens et al 2003, Izumiyama and Shiraishi 2004. For this reason, finding a link between spatial characteristics and habitat use remains difficult.…”

Spatial distribution as a measure of conservation needs: an example with Asiatic black bears in south‐western China

“…We constructed models using the following attributes of each cell: percentage coverage of forest, agriculture, grassland and shrub, mean elevation, total road length, number of townships and distance from the centre of each cell to the closest major road and the closest nature reserve. The environmental variables (cover and elevation) were selected based on findings of previous Asiatic black bear studies (Reid et al, 1991;Izumiyama & Shiraishi, 2004). Road length, distance to the closest major road and number of townships were the best available (surrogate) measures we could obtain for human density.…”

“…Black bears were once distributed throughout north-eastern, eastern, and central China and absent only in the steppe and semi-desert habitats of Inner Mongolia and western China, where the generally open habitat is more conducive for brown bears (Ma et al, 1994). Asiatic black bears occupy varied broad-leaf, coniferous and mixed forests (Reid et al, 1991;Wang et al, 1995;Izumiyama & Shiraishi, 2004). Decades ago, a rapid increase in the human population and intensive development of agriculture caused the extirpation of Asiatic black bears from large portions of the original range (Ma & Li, 1999).…”

Assessing Species Vulnerability to Climate Change in Tropical Asia: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation and Forest Management

“…The bear moves to different habitats and elevations seasonally for tracking changes in food abundance and relies on fruit at different times of the year (Izumiyama & Shiraishi 2004). Seasonal low temperatures drive annual fruiting phenology in the Indo-Malayan subtropics and variations in temperature and precipitation seasonality, coupled with annual precipitation, annual mean temperature, and elevation features, are important for Asiatic black bear distribution (Corlett 1998).…”