Spatial and temporal patterns of human avoidance by brown bears in a reintroduced population

Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy

article

Valentina Oberosler¹  Simone Tenan²  Francesco Rovero¹ 

[1] MUSE - Science Museum;National Research Council Institute of Marine Sciences;Department of Biology, University of Florence

关键词: recreation;    occupancy;    camera trapping;    human disturbance;    hierarchical modelling;    spatio-temporal displacement;   

DOI  :  10.4404/hystrix-00327-2020

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Associazione Teriologica Italiana

【 摘 要 】

The preservation of large carnivores is a formidable challenge for biodiversity conservation in Europe, where few areas can be considered wilderness. In this context, brown bears Ursus arctos inEurope coexist with people in densely settled, multi-use landscapes and hence have to cope withdiffuse human activities. This calls for robust knowledge on the effects that such activities have onbrown bear distribution and behaviour. We sampled 220 km2 with 60 camera trap locations overfour consecutive years to investigate the effect of human activity and settlements on brown bearspatial and temporal patterns across the core area of the reintroduced population in the central Italian Alps. By using images of people and vehicles to quantify human activity at camera trap siteswe could directly study how humans affect bears’ activity and occupancy. We assessed bear’s dailypatterns and found a predominantly crepuscular and nocturnal behaviour, with peaks of activity before dawn and after dusk. We also modelled bear occurrence and detection probability around thedawn and dusk hours only, i.e., when the likelihood of encounters with humans was highest. Resultsshowed that proximity to settlements and anthropogenic traffic, especially motorised, significantlyand negatively influenced bear occupancy rates across the study area. Pedestrian and motorisedtraffic rates were both also negatively related to detection probability. By using four years of dataand a refined modelling approach that considered the hours of maximum activity overlap of humans and bears, our results extend the findings from an initial study by suggesting that humanpresence induces not only temporal, but also spatial displacement. These findings are consistentwith evidence from other populations that bears living in human-modified landscapes adapt theirspatio-temporal patterns to avoid humans, an important prerequisite for the coexistence of bearsand people in complex human-natural landscapes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC