The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries
The seasonal food habits of brown bears Ursus arctos were estimated based on the analysis of 266 scats in central Norway and Sweden. Free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries were common in the Norwegian part of the study area, but were not found in the Swedish part. Correction factors were used to cor...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 |
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crwiley:10.2981/wlb.1998.017 2024-04-28T07:53:53+00:00 The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries Dahle, Bjørn Sørensen, Ole J. Wedul, Egil H. Swenson, Jon E. Sandegren, Finn 1998 http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Wildlife Biology volume 4, issue 3, page 147-158 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 1998 crwiley https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 2024-04-08T06:52:27Z The seasonal food habits of brown bears Ursus arctos were estimated based on the analysis of 266 scats in central Norway and Sweden. Free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries were common in the Norwegian part of the study area, but were not found in the Swedish part. Correction factors were used to correct for differences in digestibility and nutritional value of different foods. Because correction factors for ungulates are difficult to estimate, the results should be interpreted with some caution. In terms of digestible energy, ungulates, mostly carrion, were the most important food in both areas during spring. During summer, ants, forbs, and ungulates (reindeer Rangifer tarandus and moose Alces alces ) were the most important food items in the Swedish area, and sheep were most important in the Norwegian area. The autumn diet was dominated by berries in the Swedish area and sheep and berries in the Norwegian area. Among berries, crowberry Empetrum nigrum was the most important species, followed by bilberry Vaccinium myrtiUus in Sweden. The major difference between the Swedish and Norwegian areas was the large consumption of sheep in Norway, which provided protein and lipids, and was associated with a relatively reduced consumption of ants and forbs in summer and berries in the autumn. Based on different ingestion rates among the seasons, we estimated the relative contribution of major foods to total digestible energy. In the Swedish area, bears obtained 44–46 and 14–30% of their total annual energy from berries and ungulates, respectively. The remaining energy was obtained from insects (14–22%, mostly ants) and forbs and graminoids (12–18%, mostly blue sow thistle Cicerbita alpina). In Norway, bears obtained 65–87% of the energy from ungulates (mostly sheep), 6–17% from berries, 5–13% from insects, and 2–6% from forbs and graminoids. To gain weight prior to denning, brown bears in Norway selected lipid‐rich and easily obtainable sheep in summer and autumn. In Sweden, they relied on carbohydrate‐rich berries in ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Alces alces Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Rangifer tarandus Ursus arctos Wiley Online Library Wildlife Biology 4 3 147 158 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
topic |
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Dahle, Bjørn Sørensen, Ole J. Wedul, Egil H. Swenson, Jon E. Sandegren, Finn The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries |
topic_facet |
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
The seasonal food habits of brown bears Ursus arctos were estimated based on the analysis of 266 scats in central Norway and Sweden. Free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries were common in the Norwegian part of the study area, but were not found in the Swedish part. Correction factors were used to correct for differences in digestibility and nutritional value of different foods. Because correction factors for ungulates are difficult to estimate, the results should be interpreted with some caution. In terms of digestible energy, ungulates, mostly carrion, were the most important food in both areas during spring. During summer, ants, forbs, and ungulates (reindeer Rangifer tarandus and moose Alces alces ) were the most important food items in the Swedish area, and sheep were most important in the Norwegian area. The autumn diet was dominated by berries in the Swedish area and sheep and berries in the Norwegian area. Among berries, crowberry Empetrum nigrum was the most important species, followed by bilberry Vaccinium myrtiUus in Sweden. The major difference between the Swedish and Norwegian areas was the large consumption of sheep in Norway, which provided protein and lipids, and was associated with a relatively reduced consumption of ants and forbs in summer and berries in the autumn. Based on different ingestion rates among the seasons, we estimated the relative contribution of major foods to total digestible energy. In the Swedish area, bears obtained 44–46 and 14–30% of their total annual energy from berries and ungulates, respectively. The remaining energy was obtained from insects (14–22%, mostly ants) and forbs and graminoids (12–18%, mostly blue sow thistle Cicerbita alpina). In Norway, bears obtained 65–87% of the energy from ungulates (mostly sheep), 6–17% from berries, 5–13% from insects, and 2–6% from forbs and graminoids. To gain weight prior to denning, brown bears in Norway selected lipid‐rich and easily obtainable sheep in summer and autumn. In Sweden, they relied on carbohydrate‐rich berries in ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dahle, Bjørn Sørensen, Ole J. Wedul, Egil H. Swenson, Jon E. Sandegren, Finn |
author_facet |
Dahle, Bjørn Sørensen, Ole J. Wedul, Egil H. Swenson, Jon E. Sandegren, Finn |
author_sort |
Dahle, Bjørn |
title |
The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries |
title_short |
The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries |
title_full |
The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries |
title_fullStr |
The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries |
title_full_unstemmed |
The diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in central Scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries |
title_sort |
diet of brown bears ursus arctos in central scandinavia: effect of access to free‐ranging domestic sheep ovis aries |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
1998 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 |
genre |
Alces alces Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Rangifer tarandus Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Alces alces Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Rangifer tarandus Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Wildlife Biology volume 4, issue 3, page 147-158 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1998.017 |
container_title |
Wildlife Biology |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
147 |
op_container_end_page |
158 |
_version_ |
1797573900165447680 |