SPATIOTEMPORAL FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF GRIZZLY BEARS (URSUS ARCTOS) INHABITING THE BARREN-GROUNDS OF THE CENTRAL CANADIAN ARCTIC ...

• Main Author: Jessen, Tyler
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2017
• Subjects: Education > Sciences; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Zoology; Environmental Sciences; Grizzly bear; Ursus arctos; capture-recapture; spatially-explicit capture-recapture; Arctic; tundra; Northwest Territories; wildlife conservation; caribou; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/27848; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/4090

Spatially-explicit capture-recapture (SCR) methods can be used for estimating animal density and testing biogeographic hypotheses about the influence of landscape heterogeneity on animal space use. I used SCR to estimate the density of grizzly bears inhabiting the tundra of the central Canadian Arctic and extended the SCR framework to estimate their multi-scale habitat selection in relation to the spatiotemporal variation of food sources. Grizzly bear density was estimated to be 4.56 bears/1,000km2, which is slightly higher than estimates from 15-20 years ago. Berries and the spatial distribution of migratory caribou had the largest effect on the large scale selection patterns of bears. Food abundance had less of an effect on the resource selection of grizzlies within their home ranges. The results of this thesis indicate that grizzly bear density in the tundra is dependent upon food sources, with other factors such as intraspecific competition governing finer-scale selection patterns. ...