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Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface

Protected areas serve an important role in wildlife conservation, yet most wildlife occur outside these areas, subject to varying degrees of human disturbance. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, American black bears (Ursus americanus), a highly mobile, opportunistic species, are common despite an e...

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Autores principales: Hubbard, Tru, Cove, Michael V., Lafferty, Diana J. R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9287820/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35842446
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15665-x
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author Hubbard, Tru
Cove, Michael V.
Lafferty, Diana J. R.
author_facet Hubbard, Tru
Cove, Michael V.
Lafferty, Diana J. R.
author_sort Hubbard, Tru
collection PubMed
description Protected areas serve an important role in wildlife conservation, yet most wildlife occur outside these areas, subject to varying degrees of human disturbance. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, American black bears (Ursus americanus), a highly mobile, opportunistic species, are common despite an extensive outdoor recreation industry with the potential to affect black bear spatial and temporal activity. We investigated how environmental and anthropogenic factors influence black bear occupancy, detection, and diel activity patterns across the anthropogenic–wildland interface before and after hibernation. Using 30 camera traps deployed across a rural–wildland interface, we captured black bears at 23 camera sites (~ 77%), which exhibited co-occurrence with humans at 10 sites (~ 33%), revealing that human presence and human population density exert negative effects on black bear seasonal occupancy. Bears were more nocturnal during the hunting season, before hibernation. Human recreational activity increased ~ 38% after hibernation, but bear diurnal activity also increased ~ 36%, except when cubs were present. Our results suggest bears prioritize avoiding humans spatially, rather than temporally, except during the hunting season and when cubs are present. Understanding black bear responses to human recreation patterns and environmental variation is essential for minimizing human-mediated disturbance, and fueling conservation efforts of large, charismatic carnivores.
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spelling pubmed-92878202022-07-18 Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface Hubbard, Tru Cove, Michael V. Lafferty, Diana J. R. Sci Rep Article Protected areas serve an important role in wildlife conservation, yet most wildlife occur outside these areas, subject to varying degrees of human disturbance. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, American black bears (Ursus americanus), a highly mobile, opportunistic species, are common despite an extensive outdoor recreation industry with the potential to affect black bear spatial and temporal activity. We investigated how environmental and anthropogenic factors influence black bear occupancy, detection, and diel activity patterns across the anthropogenic–wildland interface before and after hibernation. Using 30 camera traps deployed across a rural–wildland interface, we captured black bears at 23 camera sites (~ 77%), which exhibited co-occurrence with humans at 10 sites (~ 33%), revealing that human presence and human population density exert negative effects on black bear seasonal occupancy. Bears were more nocturnal during the hunting season, before hibernation. Human recreational activity increased ~ 38% after hibernation, but bear diurnal activity also increased ~ 36%, except when cubs were present. Our results suggest bears prioritize avoiding humans spatially, rather than temporally, except during the hunting season and when cubs are present. Understanding black bear responses to human recreation patterns and environmental variation is essential for minimizing human-mediated disturbance, and fueling conservation efforts of large, charismatic carnivores. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9287820/ /pubmed/35842446 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15665-x Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Hubbard, Tru
Cove, Michael V.
Lafferty, Diana J. R.
Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface
title Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface
title_full Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface
title_fullStr Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface
title_full_unstemmed Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface
title_short Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of American black bears (Ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface
title_sort human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of american black bears (ursus americanus) across the anthropogenic-wildland interface
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9287820/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35842446
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15665-x
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