Data for: Ingredient and nutrient composition of brown bear diets ...

• Main Author: De Cuyper, Annelies
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: brown bear; Nutrition; Diet; FOS Animal and dairy science; nutrient; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f64; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f64

The dietary nutrient profile has metabolic significance and possibly contributes to species’ foraging behavior. The brown bear (Ursus arctos) was used as a model species for which dietary ingredient and nutrient concentrations as well as nutrient ratios were determined annually, seasonally and per reproductive class. Brown bears had a vertebrate- and ant-dominated diet in spring and early summer and a berry-dominated diet in fall, which translated into protein-rich and carbohydrate-rich diets, respectively. Fiber concentrations appeared constant over time and averaged at 25 % of dry matter intake. Dietary ingredient proportions differed between reproductive classes; however, these differences did not translate into a difference in dietary nutrient concentrations, suggesting that bears manage to maintain similar nutrient profiles with selection of different ingredients. In terms of nutrient ratios, the dietary protein to non-protein ratio, considered optimal at around 0.2 (on metabolizable energy basis), ... : Datapoints (fecal samples from GPS-tracked brown bears) were collected by the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project (this study: years 2015 to 2018). The estimated dietary content (EDC; ingredient composition of the 'ingested' diet) was calculated from fecal dietary remains (but see Hewitt and Robbins (1996)) for every fecal sample. The associated nutrient composition was calculated via a collection of literature data on nutrient composition of different dietary ingredients. The raw data on ingredient and nutrient composition of the brown bear diet were used to evaluate the annual and seasonal diet composition as well as the diet compostion per reproductive class. Nutrient ratio's were also calculated. ...