Human development and climate affect hibernation in a large carnivore with implications for human–carnivore conflicts
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Title
Human development and climate affect hibernation in a large carnivore with implications for human–carnivore conflicts
Description
- Expanding human development and climate change are dramatically altering habi-tat conditions for wildlife. While the initial response of wildlife to changing environ-mental conditions is typically a shift in behaviour, little is known about the effects of these stressors on hibernation behaviour, an important life- history trait that can subsequently affect animal physiology, demography, interspecific interactions and human-wildlife interactions. Given future trajectories of land use and climate change, it is important that wildlife professionals understand how animals that hi-bernate are adapting to altered landscape conditions so that management activities can be appropriately tailored.
- We investigated the influence of human development and weather on hibernation in black bears (Ursus americanus), a species of high management concern, whose behaviour is strongly tied to natural food availability, anthropogenic foods around development and variation in annual weather conditions. Using GPS collar data from 131 den events of adult female bears (n= 51), we employed fine- scale, animal- specific habitat information to evaluate the relative and cumulative influence of natural food availability, anthropogenic food and weather on the start, duration and end of hibernation.
- We found that weather and food availability (both natural and human) additively shaped black bear hibernation behaviour. Of the habitat variables we examined, warmer temperatures were most strongly associated with denning chronology, re-ducing the duration of hibernation and expediting emergence in the spring. Bears appeared to respond to natural and anthropogenic foods similarly, as more natural foods, and greater use of human foods around development, both postponed hi-bernation in the fall and decreased its duration.
- Synthesis and applications. Warmer temperatures and use of anthropogenic food subsides additively reduced black bear hibernation, suggesting that future changes in climate and land use may further alter bear behaviour and increase the length of their active season. We speculate that longer active periods for bears will result in subsequent increases in human–bear conflicts and human-caused bear mortalities. These metrics are commonly used by wildlife agencies to index trends in bear pop-ulations, but have the potential to be misleading when bear behaviour dynamically adapts to changing environmental conditions, and should be substituted with relia-ble demographic methods.
Bibliographic Citation
Johnson, H. E., D. L. Lewis, T. L. Verzuh, C. F. Wallace, R. M. Much, L. K. Willmarth, and S. W. Breck. 2017. Human development and climate affect hibernation in a large carnivore with implications for human–carnivore conflicts. Journal of Applied Ecology 55:663–672. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365–2664.13021
Creator
Johnson, Heather E.
Lewis, David L.
Verzuh, Tana L.
Wallace, Cody F.
Much, Rebecca M.
Willmarth, Lyle K.
Breck, Stewart W.
Subject
Black bear
Denning chronology
Hibernation
Human-bear conflict
Residential development
Extent
10 pages
Type
Article
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Is Part Of
Journal of Applied Ecology
Date Accepted
09/19/2017
Date Issued
02/12/2018
Date Submitted
06/20/2017
Collection
Citation
Johnson, Heather E. et al., “Human development and climate affect hibernation in a large carnivore with implications for human–carnivore conflicts,” CPW Digital Collections, accessed April 26, 2024, https://cpw.cvlcollections.org/items/show/402.