Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears
Abstract Hibernation is an adaptive strategy to survive harsh winter conditions and food shortage. The use of well‐insulated winter dens helps animals minimize energy loss during hibernation. Brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) commonly use excavated dens for hibernation. Physical attributes of excavated d...
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.6371 2024-09-15T18:40:17+00:00 Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears Shiratsuru, Shotaro Friebe, Andrea Swenson, Jon E. Zedrosser, Andreas Miljødirektoratet Svenska Jägareförbundet Naturvårdsverket Austrian Science Fund 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6371 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.6371 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.6371 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.6371 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 10, issue 15, page 8044-8054 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6371 2024-08-22T04:16:52Z Abstract Hibernation is an adaptive strategy to survive harsh winter conditions and food shortage. The use of well‐insulated winter dens helps animals minimize energy loss during hibernation. Brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) commonly use excavated dens for hibernation. Physical attributes of excavated dens are expected to impact the bear's heat retention and energy conservation. The objective of this study was to examine the determinants of cavity size of excavated dens and the impact of physical attributes of excavated dens on energy conservation in hibernating bears, hypothesizing that bears excavate dens in a way to minimize heat loss and optimize energy conservation during hibernation. We predicted that den cavity size would be determined by the bear's body size and that older bears would excavate better‐fitting cavities to minimize heat loss, due to their previous experience. We further predicted that physical attributes of excavated dens would affect the bears’ posthibernation body condition. Our results revealed that bears excavated a den cavity in relation to their body size, regardless of sex, and that older bears tended to excavate better‐fitting den cavities compared to young bears, as we expected. Older bears excavated better‐fitting den cavities, suggesting a potentially experience‐based shift with age in den‐excavation behavior and an optimum cavity size relative to a bear's body size. Our key finding is that insulation of excavated dens provided by wall/rood thickness and bedding materials had a significant positive effect on bears’ posthibernation body condition. We believe that our study provides new insight into how not only the quality of denning habitat, but also the quality of dens may affect hibernating animals, by presenting a potential adaptive aspect of den preparation (age effect on efficiency in den excavation) and effect of den attributes on the posthibernation body condition of brown bears. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos Wiley Online Library Ecology and Evolution 10 15 8044 8054 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Hibernation is an adaptive strategy to survive harsh winter conditions and food shortage. The use of well‐insulated winter dens helps animals minimize energy loss during hibernation. Brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) commonly use excavated dens for hibernation. Physical attributes of excavated dens are expected to impact the bear's heat retention and energy conservation. The objective of this study was to examine the determinants of cavity size of excavated dens and the impact of physical attributes of excavated dens on energy conservation in hibernating bears, hypothesizing that bears excavate dens in a way to minimize heat loss and optimize energy conservation during hibernation. We predicted that den cavity size would be determined by the bear's body size and that older bears would excavate better‐fitting cavities to minimize heat loss, due to their previous experience. We further predicted that physical attributes of excavated dens would affect the bears’ posthibernation body condition. Our results revealed that bears excavated a den cavity in relation to their body size, regardless of sex, and that older bears tended to excavate better‐fitting den cavities compared to young bears, as we expected. Older bears excavated better‐fitting den cavities, suggesting a potentially experience‐based shift with age in den‐excavation behavior and an optimum cavity size relative to a bear's body size. Our key finding is that insulation of excavated dens provided by wall/rood thickness and bedding materials had a significant positive effect on bears’ posthibernation body condition. We believe that our study provides new insight into how not only the quality of denning habitat, but also the quality of dens may affect hibernating animals, by presenting a potential adaptive aspect of den preparation (age effect on efficiency in den excavation) and effect of den attributes on the posthibernation body condition of brown bears. |
author2 |
Miljødirektoratet Svenska Jägareförbundet Naturvårdsverket Austrian Science Fund |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Shiratsuru, Shotaro Friebe, Andrea Swenson, Jon E. Zedrosser, Andreas |
spellingShingle |
Shiratsuru, Shotaro Friebe, Andrea Swenson, Jon E. Zedrosser, Andreas Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears |
author_facet |
Shiratsuru, Shotaro Friebe, Andrea Swenson, Jon E. Zedrosser, Andreas |
author_sort |
Shiratsuru, Shotaro |
title |
Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears |
title_short |
Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears |
title_full |
Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears |
title_fullStr |
Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears |
title_full_unstemmed |
Room without a view—Den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears |
title_sort |
room without a view—den excavation in relation to body size in brown bears |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6371 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.6371 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.6371 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.6371 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 10, issue 15, page 8044-8054 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6371 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
15 |
container_start_page |
8044 |
op_container_end_page |
8054 |
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1810484596961181696 |