The Effects of Developments and Primary Roads on Grizzly Bear Habitat Use in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

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Aerial locations of radio-instrumented grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) were used to analyze effects of human activity associated with developments and primary roads on grizzly bear habitat use in Yellowstone National Park. Grizzly bear occupancy of habitat near human facilities was reduced, efficient foraging strategies were disrupted, and cohorts tending to be subordinate or security-conscious were displaced into habitat nearer developments by more dominant cohorts, particularly during summer and fall. Adult females and subadult males residing closer to developments were management-trapped at a higher rate than animals of the same class residing farther away. Adult females and subadults bore a disproportionate part of costs associated with avoiding roads and developments. For this reason and because adult females are generally thought to operate under considerable energetic duress in the Yellowstone area, avoidance of developments and roads may have resulted in higher mortality and lower productivity among the adult female cohort.