Social environment shapes female settlement decisions in a solitary carnivore

Abstract

How and where a female selects an area to settle and breed is of central importance in dispersal and population ecology as it governs range expansion and gene flow. Social structure and organization have been shown to influence settlement decisions, but its importance in the settlement of large, solitary mammals is largely unknown. We investigate how the identity of overlapping conspecifics on the landscape, acquired during the maternal care period, influences the selection of settlement home ranges in a non-territorial, solitary mammal using location data of 56 female brown bears (Ursus arctos). We used a resource selection function to determine whether females’ settlement behavior was influenced by the presence of their mother, related females, familiar females, and female population density. Hunting may remove mothers and result in socio-spatial changes before settlement. We compared overlap between settling females and their mother’s concurrent or most recent home ranges to examine the settling female’s response to the absence or presence of her mother on the landscape. We found that females selected settlement home ranges that overlapped their mother’s home range, familiar females, that is, those they had previously overlapped with, and areas with higher density than their natal ranges. However, they did not select areas overlapping related females. We also found that when mothers were removed from the landscape, female offspring selected settlement home ranges with greater overlap of their mother’s range, compared with mothers who were alive. Our results suggest that females are acquiring and using information about their social environment when making settlement decisions.

Brown bear skin-borne secretions display evidence of individuality and age-sex variation

“…Individuals that advertised their distinctive odours (e.g., through scent marking) would then have a competitive or reproductive advantage, especially if their odour also contains coded information on age and sex. Bears are thought to possess the ability to recognise previous mates 116 , kin 102,117 , and other conspecifics 118,119 , and scent marking has been proposed as a method of signalling dominance and mate attraction 10,38 . Indeed, Morehouse et al 120 recently found a positive relationship between tree rubbing and reproductive success for both male and female brown bears, and Hansen et al 119 found that familiarity between female bears was important for home range settlement, which they suggest is facilitated in part by scent cues.…”

“…Bears are thought to possess the ability to recognise previous mates 116 , kin 102,117 , and other conspecifics 118,119 , and scent marking has been proposed as a method of signalling dominance and mate attraction 10,38 . Indeed, Morehouse et al 120 recently found a positive relationship between tree rubbing and reproductive success for both male and female brown bears, and Hansen et al 119 found that familiarity between female bears was important for home range settlement, which they suggest is facilitated in part by scent cues. Although brown bears are not a gregarious species, they do have some ecological traits (e.g., breeding and feeding aggregations, overlapping home ranges) that lead to conspecific interactions and result in a social hierarchy.…”

Integrative Model of Human-Animal Interactions: A One Health–One Welfare Systemic Approach to Studying HAI

“…In so-called "solitary" species, the sense of safety is not dependent on the presence of other conspecifics (134). It is rather the aspects of their vital domain which constitute the vectors of safety such as their shelter and familiarity with their environment (205,206). These tangible elements are likely to allow the emergence of a neurochemical basis for safety, also mediated by endogenous opioids (207).…”

Brown bear skin-borne secretions display evidence of individuality and age-sex variation

“…Individuals that advertised their distinctive odours (e.g., through scent marking) would then have a competitive or reproductive advantage, especially if their odour also contains coded information on age and sex. Bears are thought to possess the ability to recognise previous mates 97 , kin 89,98 , and other conspeci cs 99,100 , and scent marking has been proposed as a method of signalling dominance and mate attraction 9,35 .…”

“…Indeed, Morehouse et al 101 recently found a positive relationship between tree rubbing and reproductive success for both male and female brown bears, and Hansen et al 100 found that familiarity between female bears was important for home range settlement, which they suggest is facilitated in part by scent cues. Although brown bears are not a gregarious species, they do have some ecological traits (e.g., breeding and feeding aggregations, overlapping home ranges) that lead to conspeci c interactions and result in a social hierarchy.…”