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Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape

When large carnivores occupy peripheral human lands conflict with humans becomes inevitable, and the reduction of human-carnivore interactions must be the first consideration for those concerned with conflict mitigation. Studies designed to identify areas of high human-bear interaction are crucial f...

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Autores principales: Takahata, Chihiro, Nielsen, Scott Eric, Takii, Akiko, Izumiyama, Shigeyuki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24465947
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086181
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author Takahata, Chihiro
Nielsen, Scott Eric
Takii, Akiko
Izumiyama, Shigeyuki
author_facet Takahata, Chihiro
Nielsen, Scott Eric
Takii, Akiko
Izumiyama, Shigeyuki
author_sort Takahata, Chihiro
collection PubMed
description When large carnivores occupy peripheral human lands conflict with humans becomes inevitable, and the reduction of human-carnivore interactions must be the first consideration for those concerned with conflict mitigation. Studies designed to identify areas of high human-bear interaction are crucial for prioritizing management actions. Due to a surge in conflicts, against a background of social intolerance to wildlife and the prevalent use of lethal control throughout Japan, Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are now threatened by high rates of mortality. There is an urgent need to reduce the frequency of human-bear encounters if bear populations are to be conserved. To this end, we estimated the habitats that relate to human-bear interactions by sex and season using resource selection functions (RSF). Significant seasonal differences in selection for and avoidance of areas by bears were estimated by distance-effect models with interaction terms of land cover and sex. Human-bear boundaries were delineated on the basis of defined bear-habitat edges in order to identify areas that are in most need of proactive management strategies. Asiatic black bears selected habitats in close proximity to forest edges, forest roads, rivers, and red pine and riparian forests during the peak conflict season and this was correctly predicted in our human-bear boundary maps. Our findings demonstrated that bears selected abandoned forests and agricultural lands, indicating that it should be possible to reduce animal use near human lands by restoring season-specific habitat in relatively remote areas. Habitat-based conflict mitigation may therefore provide a practical means of creating adequate separation between humans and these large carnivores.
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spelling pubmed-39004892014-01-24 Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape Takahata, Chihiro Nielsen, Scott Eric Takii, Akiko Izumiyama, Shigeyuki PLoS One Research Article When large carnivores occupy peripheral human lands conflict with humans becomes inevitable, and the reduction of human-carnivore interactions must be the first consideration for those concerned with conflict mitigation. Studies designed to identify areas of high human-bear interaction are crucial for prioritizing management actions. Due to a surge in conflicts, against a background of social intolerance to wildlife and the prevalent use of lethal control throughout Japan, Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are now threatened by high rates of mortality. There is an urgent need to reduce the frequency of human-bear encounters if bear populations are to be conserved. To this end, we estimated the habitats that relate to human-bear interactions by sex and season using resource selection functions (RSF). Significant seasonal differences in selection for and avoidance of areas by bears were estimated by distance-effect models with interaction terms of land cover and sex. Human-bear boundaries were delineated on the basis of defined bear-habitat edges in order to identify areas that are in most need of proactive management strategies. Asiatic black bears selected habitats in close proximity to forest edges, forest roads, rivers, and red pine and riparian forests during the peak conflict season and this was correctly predicted in our human-bear boundary maps. Our findings demonstrated that bears selected abandoned forests and agricultural lands, indicating that it should be possible to reduce animal use near human lands by restoring season-specific habitat in relatively remote areas. Habitat-based conflict mitigation may therefore provide a practical means of creating adequate separation between humans and these large carnivores. Public Library of Science 2014-01-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3900489/ /pubmed/24465947 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086181 Text en © 2014 Takahata et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Takahata, Chihiro
Nielsen, Scott Eric
Takii, Akiko
Izumiyama, Shigeyuki
Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape
title Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape
title_full Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape
title_fullStr Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape
title_full_unstemmed Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape
title_short Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape
title_sort habitat selection of a large carnivore along human-wildlife boundaries in a highly modified landscape
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24465947
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086181
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