Incorporating visual and auditory perception into understanding grizzly bear behavioural responses to roads in Alberta, Canada ...

• Main Author: Parsons, Bethany
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2020
• Subjects: Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0390041; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0390041

Anthropogenic disturbances, including roads, are known to influence animal habitat selection and mortality. However, little is known about the role of sensory perception in animal responses to disturbance. The goal of this thesis was to investigate the effect of visual and auditory perception around roads on grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Alberta, Canada. As an apex predator, the greatest threat to grizzly bear populations in my study area is human-caused mortality near roads, yet grizzly bear behavioural responses to roads are not fully understood. In this thesis, detailed topographic and land cover data from airborne Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) and Landsat imagery were used to estimate visibility and audibility around roads. Using a modified semivariogram approach with data on step lengths from GPS-collared grizzly bears, I found that grizzly bears responded to roads at slightly further distances when roads were perceptible (80 m) than when roads were imperceptible (60 m). I extended the analysis ...