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Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear

Previous studies on the mating system of the Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) have been limited to observations of captive populations and estimations of multiple paternities. Hence, the mating system of wild bears remains poorly understood. Animal‐borne camera systems (i.e., cameras mounted on a...

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Autores principales: Naganuma, Tomoko, Tanaka, Mii, Tezuka, Shiori, M.J.G. Steyaert, Sam, Tochigi, Kahoko, Inagaki, Akino, Myojo, Hiroaki, Yamazaki, Koji, Koike, Shinsuke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8293739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34306614
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7722
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author Naganuma, Tomoko
Tanaka, Mii
Tezuka, Shiori
M.J.G. Steyaert, Sam
Tochigi, Kahoko
Inagaki, Akino
Myojo, Hiroaki
Yamazaki, Koji
Koike, Shinsuke
author_facet Naganuma, Tomoko
Tanaka, Mii
Tezuka, Shiori
M.J.G. Steyaert, Sam
Tochigi, Kahoko
Inagaki, Akino
Myojo, Hiroaki
Yamazaki, Koji
Koike, Shinsuke
author_sort Naganuma, Tomoko
collection PubMed
description Previous studies on the mating system of the Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) have been limited to observations of captive populations and estimations of multiple paternities. Hence, the mating system of wild bears remains poorly understood. Animal‐borne camera systems (i.e., cameras mounted on animals) provide novel tools to study the behavior of elusive animals. Here, we used an animal‐borne video system to record the activities of wild bears during the mating season. Video camera collars were attached to four adult Asian black bears (male “A” and “B,” and female “A” and “B”) captured in Tokyo, central Japan, in May and June 2018. The collars were retrieved in July 2018, after which the video data were downloaded and analyzed in terms of bear activity and mating behavior. All the bears were found to interact with other uniquely identifiable bears for some of the time (range 9–22 days) during the deployment period (range 36–45 days), and multiple mating in males was documented. Both males and females exhibited different behaviors on social days (i.e., days when the bear interacted with conspecifics) compared with solitary days (i.e., days with no observed interactions with conspecifics). Compared with solitary days, the bears spent a lower proportion of time on foraging activities and higher proportion of time on resting activities on social days. Our results suggest that Asian black bears have a polygamous mating system, as both sexes consort and potentially mate with multiple partners during a given mating season. Furthermore, bears appeared to reduce their foraging activities on social days and engaged more in social interactions.
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spelling pubmed-82937392021-07-23 Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear Naganuma, Tomoko Tanaka, Mii Tezuka, Shiori M.J.G. Steyaert, Sam Tochigi, Kahoko Inagaki, Akino Myojo, Hiroaki Yamazaki, Koji Koike, Shinsuke Ecol Evol Nature Notes Previous studies on the mating system of the Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) have been limited to observations of captive populations and estimations of multiple paternities. Hence, the mating system of wild bears remains poorly understood. Animal‐borne camera systems (i.e., cameras mounted on animals) provide novel tools to study the behavior of elusive animals. Here, we used an animal‐borne video system to record the activities of wild bears during the mating season. Video camera collars were attached to four adult Asian black bears (male “A” and “B,” and female “A” and “B”) captured in Tokyo, central Japan, in May and June 2018. The collars were retrieved in July 2018, after which the video data were downloaded and analyzed in terms of bear activity and mating behavior. All the bears were found to interact with other uniquely identifiable bears for some of the time (range 9–22 days) during the deployment period (range 36–45 days), and multiple mating in males was documented. Both males and females exhibited different behaviors on social days (i.e., days when the bear interacted with conspecifics) compared with solitary days (i.e., days with no observed interactions with conspecifics). Compared with solitary days, the bears spent a lower proportion of time on foraging activities and higher proportion of time on resting activities on social days. Our results suggest that Asian black bears have a polygamous mating system, as both sexes consort and potentially mate with multiple partners during a given mating season. Furthermore, bears appeared to reduce their foraging activities on social days and engaged more in social interactions. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8293739/ /pubmed/34306614 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7722 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Nature Notes
Naganuma, Tomoko
Tanaka, Mii
Tezuka, Shiori
M.J.G. Steyaert, Sam
Tochigi, Kahoko
Inagaki, Akino
Myojo, Hiroaki
Yamazaki, Koji
Koike, Shinsuke
Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear
title Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear
title_full Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear
title_fullStr Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear
title_full_unstemmed Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear
title_short Animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the Asian black bear
title_sort animal‐borne video systems provide insight into the reproductive behavior of the asian black bear
topic Nature Notes
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8293739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34306614
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7722
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