Leacock William B, Smith Kurt T, Deacy William W
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 101 12th Avenue, Room 236, Fairbanks, AK, 9970, USA.
, 27955 Blixit Creek Road, Potomac, MT, 59823, USA.
Mov Ecol. 2024 Dec 4;12(1):77. doi: 10.1186/s40462-024-00513-6.
Access to salmon resources is vital to coastal brown bear (Ursus arctos) populations. Deciphering patterns of travel allowing coastal brown bears to exploit salmon resources dispersed across the landscape is critical to understanding their behavioral ecology, maintaining landscape connectivity for the species, and developing conservation strategies.
We modeled travel behavior of 51 radio-collared female Kodiak brown bears (U. a. middendorffi) from 2008 to 2015 during the sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) stream spawning season to identify landscape patterns associated with travel pathways. To accomplish this, we first identified behavioral states of marked individuals, and then developed a resource selection function (RSF) to evaluate environmental covariates that were predictors of selection during travel behavior.
Landcover edges, elderberry-salmonberry stands, lowland tundra, elevation, terrain position, and stream length influenced selection for travel corridors. The RSF validated well and was comparable to corridors identified by pathways used by bears while travelling.
Models identified spatial predictions of the relative probability of selection while bears were travelling during the salmon spawning season and identified areas that contained potential movement corridors important for bears inhabiting Kodiak Island. Our results characterized factors influencing travel, identified important movement corridors, and provided managers with information to make informed resource management decisions.
获取鲑鱼资源对沿海棕熊（ Ursus arctos ）种群至关重要。解读沿海棕熊利用分散在整个景观中的鲑鱼资源的移动模式，对于理解它们的行为生态学、维持该物种的景观连通性以及制定保护策略至关重要。
我们对2008年至2015年期间51只佩戴无线电项圈的雌性科迪亚克棕熊（ U. a. middendorffi ）在红大马哈鱼（ Oncorhynchus nerka ）溪流产卵季节的移动行为进行建模，以识别与移动路径相关的景观模式。为实现这一目标，我们首先确定标记个体的行为状态，然后开发一种资源选择函数（RSF）来评估作为移动行为选择预测因子的环境协变量。
土地覆盖边缘、接骨木-美洲茶藨子林分、低地冻原、海拔、地形位置和溪流长度影响了对移动走廊的选择。资源选择函数验证效果良好，与熊在移动时使用的路径所确定的走廊相当。
模型确定了鲑鱼产卵季节熊移动时选择的相对概率的空间预测，并确定了对栖息在科迪亚克岛的熊来说包含潜在移动走廊的区域。我们的结果描述了影响移动的因素，确定了重要的移动走廊，并为管理者提供信息以做出明智的资源管理决策。
