An Automated System for Detecting and Reporting Trespassing Bears in Yosemite National Park
We developed and tested a system that alerts personnel when a radiocollared animal enters an area designated as off-limits. The remote alarm combines the monitoring capabilities of data loggers with a message transmitter that sends a voice message via 2-way radios when an animal enters a monitored area. We tested the remote alarm with food-conditioned […]
How Agencies Respond to Human-Black Bear Conflicts: A Survey of Wildlife Agencies in North America
Managing interactions between humans and American black bears (Ursus americanus) has evolved from public feeding and viewing of garbage-habituated bears to nationwide bear education campaigns focused on removing food attractants. We conducted a self-administered survey to assess how wildlife agencies respond to human-bear conflict and identified techniques currently used to manage conflicts throughout US, Canada, […]
Systematic Collection of Bear-Human Interaction Information for Alaska’s National Parks
We present a database application designed to standardize the collection and entry of brown and black bear (Ursus arctos and U. americanus)-human interaction data, formalize data storage methods, and analyze patterns of bear-human interactions in Alaska’s National Parks. The National Park Service Alaska Region Bear-Human Information Management System (BHIMS) facilitates the systematic collection of biologically […]
Characteristics of Sloth Bear Day Dens and Use in Disturbed and Unprotected Habitat of North Bilaspur Forest Division, Chhattisgarh, Central India
There is very little published information on denning ecology of sloth bears (Melursus ursinus). We identified 109 day dens in Pendra and Marwahi ranges of North Bilaspur Forest Division. Except for 3 dens, all sloth bear day dens were found in hillocks made of boulders. Annual mean temperature outside and inside the dens in daytime […]
Landscape Characteristics of Sloth Bear Range in Sri Lanka
Little is known about the biology, status, or distribution of sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) in Sri Lanka. To facilitate sloth bear conservation, information is needed about where bears occur and what landscapes support their populations. We overlaid a 5- × 5-km grid on 1:50,000-scale land-use maps covering historic sloth bear range in Sri Lanka. In […]
Sub-Sampling Genetic Data to Estimate Black Bear Population Size: A Case Study
Costs for genetic analysis of hair samples collected for individual identification of bears average approximately US$50 [2004] per sample. This can easily exceed budgetary allowances for large-scale studies or studies of high-density bear populations. We used 2 genetic datasets from 2 areas in the southeastern United States to explore how reducing costs of analysis by […]
Population Growth of Yellowstone Grizzly Bears: Uncertainty and Future Monitoring
Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of the US Rocky Mountains have recently increased in numbers, but remain vulnerable due to isolation from other populations and predicted reductions in favored food resources. Harris et al. (2006) projected how this population might fare in the future under alternative survival rates, and in doing […]
Distance-Based Criteria to Identify Minimum Number of Brown Bear Females with Cubs in Europe
Counts of females with cubs-of-the-year (FWC) have been used as an index for monitoring brown bear (Ursus arctos) populations or estimating a minimum number of adult females in several small and medium-sized populations. Because discriminating among family groups is crucial to this procedure, we sought to improve criteria used to differentiate among FWC using spatial […]
Trends in Number and Distribution of Brown Bear Females with Cubs-of-the-Year in the Cantabrian Mountains, Spain
Brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Cantabrian Mountains of northwestern Spain occur in 2 small, isolated, and endangered populations: the western population (WP) and the smaller eastern population (EP) were studied from 1989 to 2004. We documented the number of unique females with cubs-of-the-year ( F_CUB ), the number of cubs per female, and the […]
Brown Bear Population Trends from Demographic and Monitoring-Based Estimators
A primary goal of monitoring wildlife populations is the estimation of population growth rate, λ. Two common methods by which biologists estimate λ are demographic studies of marked individuals, which tend to be expensive and labor-intensive, and estimators derived from time series of population indices. We compare grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population growth rates in […]
