Behavioural responses of brown bears to roads and hunting disturbance.

Publisher: Blackwell Pub. Ltd Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101566408 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 2045-7758 (Print) Linking ISSN: 20457758 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Ecol Evol Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE

Original Publication: [Oxford] : Blackwell Pub. Ltd.

Harvest regulations commonly attenuate the consequences of hunting on specific segments of a population. However, regulations may not protect individuals from non-lethal effects of hunting and their consequences remain poorly understood. In this study, we compared the movement rates of Scandinavian brown bears ( Ursus arctos , n  = 47) across spatiotemporal variations in risk in relation to the onset of bear hunting. We tested two alternative hypotheses based on whether behavioural responses to hunting involve hiding or escaping. If bears try to reduce risk exposure by avoiding being detected by hunters, we expect individuals from all demographic groups to reduce their movement rate during the hunting season. On the other hand, if bears avoid hunters by escaping, we expect them to increase their movement rate in order to leave high-risk areas faster. We found an increased movement rate in females accompanied by dependent offspring during the morning hours of the bear hunting season, a general decrease in movement rate in adult lone females, and no changes in males and subadult females. The increased movement rate that we observed in females with dependant offspring during the hunting season was likely an antipredator response because it only occurred in areas located closer to roads, whereas the decreased movement rate in lone females could be either part of seasonal activity patterns or be associated with an increased selection for better concealment. Our study suggests that female brown bears accompanied by offspring likely move faster in high-risk areas to minimize risk exposure as well as the costly trade-offs (i.e. time spent foraging vs. time spent hiding) typically associated with anti-predator tactics that involve changes in resource selection. Our study also highlights the importance of modelling fine-scale spatiotemporal variations in risk to adequately capture the complexity in behavioural responses caused by human activities in wildlife.
Competing Interests: None.
(© 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Oecologia. 2016 Dec;182(4):1019-1029. (PMID: 27696003)
Conserv Physiol. 2020 Dec 30;8(1):coaa122. (PMID: 33408867)
Ecol Evol. 2019 Feb 05;9(2):880-890. (PMID: 30766677)
Ecol Appl. 2023 Jun;33(4):e2840. (PMID: 36912774)
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jan 20;106(3):952-4. (PMID: 19139415)
Science. 2018 Jun 15;360(6394):1232-1235. (PMID: 29903973)
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jul 28;117(30):17876-17883. (PMID: 32632004)
Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 26;9(1):12371. (PMID: 31451727)
Ecol Evol. 2018 May 04;8(11):5863-5872. (PMID: 29938099)
Nat Commun. 2018 Mar 27;9(1):1100. (PMID: 29588441)
Ecol Lett. 2019 Oct;22(10):1578-1586. (PMID: 31313436)
J Anim Ecol. 2022 Jan;91(1):46-60. (PMID: 34689337)
Ecol Evol. 2022 Jul 17;12(7):e9108. (PMID: 35866017)
Ecol Appl. 2019 Oct;29(7):e01972. (PMID: 31301178)
Mol Ecol. 2008 Jan;17(1):209-20. (PMID: 17868288)
Proc Biol Sci. 2005 Dec 22;272(1581):2627-34. (PMID: 16321785)
Science. 2015 Aug 21;349(6250):858-60. (PMID: 26293961)
Am Nat. 1999 Jun;153(6):649-659. (PMID: 29585647)
Trends Ecol Evol. 2019 Apr;34(4):355-368. (PMID: 30745252)

Keywords: Ursus arctos; disturbance; hunting; landscape of fear; movement rate; risk perception

Dryad 10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdg1f

Date Created: 20240617 Latest Revision: 20240618

20240618

PMC11176727

10.1002/ece3.11532

38882533