Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View
We analyzed harvest data to test hypotheses that nearly 4 decades of effort to reduce abundance of brown bears ( Ursus arctos ), black bears ( U. americanus ) and gray wolves ( Canis lupus ) in an 60,542 km 2 area in south-central Alaska (Game Management Unit [GMU] 13) was positively correlated with...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7a05f40bb7ed4d1abc2a5da20609a8fc 2023-05-15T13:13:25+02:00 Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View Sterling D. Miller David K. Person R. Terry Bowyer 2022-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/d14110939 https://doaj.org/article/7a05f40bb7ed4d1abc2a5da20609a8fc EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/11/939 https://doaj.org/toc/1424-2818 doi:10.3390/d14110939 1424-2818 https://doaj.org/article/7a05f40bb7ed4d1abc2a5da20609a8fc Diversity, Vol 14, Iss 939, p 939 (2022) Alaska black bear brown bear case history intensive management moose Biology (General) QH301-705.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/d14110939 2022-12-30T22:38:37Z We analyzed harvest data to test hypotheses that nearly 4 decades of effort to reduce abundance of brown bears ( Ursus arctos ), black bears ( U. americanus ) and gray wolves ( Canis lupus ) in an 60,542 km 2 area in south-central Alaska (Game Management Unit [GMU] 13) was positively correlated with moose ( Alces alces ) harvests in some time-lagged fashion. Predator-reduction efforts were progressively more aggressive over decades (both de facto and officially designated predator control) and did not have clear starting points which complicated our post hoc analyses. We documented no positive correlations ( p > 0.05) between harvests of brown and black bears and subsequent moose harvests for any time lag. Moose harvest was negatively correlated with the previous years’ wolf harvest, but the relationship was weak (correlation = −0.33, p < 0.05). Consequently, we reject our hypotheses that harvest of predators was positively correlated with moose harvests. We also observed no differences in mean moose harvests during periods of officially designated wolf control (2005–2020) and a previous period ( p > 0.50). We recommend that predator reductions designed to improve hunter harvests of moose be conducted within a research framework that will permit improved interpretations of results and the implementation of an adaptive-management approach to achieve management objectives. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alces alces Canis lupus Ursus arctos Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Diversity 14 11 939 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Alaska black bear brown bear case history intensive management moose Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
spellingShingle |
Alaska black bear brown bear case history intensive management moose Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Sterling D. Miller David K. Person R. Terry Bowyer Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View |
topic_facet |
Alaska black bear brown bear case history intensive management moose Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
description |
We analyzed harvest data to test hypotheses that nearly 4 decades of effort to reduce abundance of brown bears ( Ursus arctos ), black bears ( U. americanus ) and gray wolves ( Canis lupus ) in an 60,542 km 2 area in south-central Alaska (Game Management Unit [GMU] 13) was positively correlated with moose ( Alces alces ) harvests in some time-lagged fashion. Predator-reduction efforts were progressively more aggressive over decades (both de facto and officially designated predator control) and did not have clear starting points which complicated our post hoc analyses. We documented no positive correlations ( p > 0.05) between harvests of brown and black bears and subsequent moose harvests for any time lag. Moose harvest was negatively correlated with the previous years’ wolf harvest, but the relationship was weak (correlation = −0.33, p < 0.05). Consequently, we reject our hypotheses that harvest of predators was positively correlated with moose harvests. We also observed no differences in mean moose harvests during periods of officially designated wolf control (2005–2020) and a previous period ( p > 0.50). We recommend that predator reductions designed to improve hunter harvests of moose be conducted within a research framework that will permit improved interpretations of results and the implementation of an adaptive-management approach to achieve management objectives. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sterling D. Miller David K. Person R. Terry Bowyer |
author_facet |
Sterling D. Miller David K. Person R. Terry Bowyer |
author_sort |
Sterling D. Miller |
title |
Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View |
title_short |
Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View |
title_full |
Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View |
title_fullStr |
Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View |
title_full_unstemmed |
Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View |
title_sort |
efficacy of killing large carnivores to enhance moose harvests: new insights from a long-term view |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/d14110939 https://doaj.org/article/7a05f40bb7ed4d1abc2a5da20609a8fc |
genre |
Alces alces Canis lupus Ursus arctos Alaska |
genre_facet |
Alces alces Canis lupus Ursus arctos Alaska |
op_source |
Diversity, Vol 14, Iss 939, p 939 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/11/939 https://doaj.org/toc/1424-2818 doi:10.3390/d14110939 1424-2818 https://doaj.org/article/7a05f40bb7ed4d1abc2a5da20609a8fc |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/d14110939 |
container_title |
Diversity |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
939 |
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1766258243519119360 |