Selection of denning habitats by Scandinavian brown bears Ursus arctos

• Main Authors: Jon E. Swenson, John P. Ball
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: brownbear; denning site selection; GIS; habitat selection; human disturbance; Sweden; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.583.4834; http://www.bearproject.info/uploads/publications/A 83 Selection of denning habitats by Scandinavian brown bears.pdf

itats by Scandinavian brown bearsUrsus arctos.-Wildl. Biol. 14: 176-187. We analyse the selection of denning habitats by Scandinavian brown bears Ursus arctos and test if there are differences related to sex and age. At the landscape level, the vegetation types within a 500-m radius around 250 dens used during 1990-2000 in south-central Sweden were analysed using a Geographical Information System (GIS). Composi-tional analysis (CA) was used to test if bears selected or avoided certain habitat types for denning. There were relatively few differences in hab-itat selection among bears of different age or sex. Overall, as a group the bears showed distinct preferences in selection of denning habitats; se-lecting for open canopy (Scots pine Pinus sylvestris) forests and habitats with moist soil with rich vegetation, before closed canopy (older Nor-way spruce Picea abies and Scots pine) forests, young forest and clear cuts, mountain coniferous forests and bogs. Denning bears avoided water, alpinemountain-birch forest, deciduous forest, peat, exposed bed-