Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians
Brown bear movement patterns are driven by their opportunistic feeding behaviour, with their complex life history and seasonality playing an important role in habitat selection. Within a large unfragmented forest habitats persisting over decades in the Romanian Carpathians and a prohibitive hunting...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:cbdebc7bb1744a23b4055807e3dd25a4 2023-05-15T15:47:00+02:00 Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians Ioan Mihai Pop Leonardo Bereczky Silviu Chiriac Ruben Iosif Andreea Nita Viorel Dan Popescu Laurențiu Rozylowicz 2018-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.26.22955 https://doaj.org/article/cbdebc7bb1744a23b4055807e3dd25a4 EN eng Pensoft Publishers https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=22955 https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/lib/ajax_srv/article_elements_srv.php?action=download_pdf&item_id=22955 https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/lib/ajax_srv/article_elements_srv.php?action=download_xml&item_id=22955 https://doaj.org/toc/1314-6947 https://doaj.org/toc/1314-3301 doi:10.3897/natureconservation.26.22955 1314-3301 1314-6947 https://doaj.org/article/cbdebc7bb1744a23b4055807e3dd25a4 Nature Conservation, Vol 26, Iss , Pp 15-31 (2018) Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.26.22955 2022-12-31T08:11:07Z Brown bear movement patterns are driven by their opportunistic feeding behaviour, with their complex life history and seasonality playing an important role in habitat selection. Within a large unfragmented forest habitats persisting over decades in the Romanian Carpathians and a prohibitive hunting management during 40 years of communist centralised game management, information about brown bear movements and spatial ecology is lacking. Using data obtained from 13 brown bears fitted with GPS telemetry collars, we estimated home ranges and core activity areas and we investigated the daily, seasonal and altitudinal movements of brown bears in the Eastern Romanian Carpathians and surrounding high hills. The median MCP95% home ranges of brown bears was 629.92 km2 and the median size of core activity areas (estimated as 50% kernel density) was 36.37 km2, with no significant differences between males and females. The mean daily distance travelled, measured as daily displacement length, was 1818 m and an analysis of seasonal movements indicated significant differences between seasons (greatest movements during the Hyperphagia season). The GPS-collared brown bears travelled between a minimum altitude measured at ~234 m and a maximum at ~1634 m. Analysing the spatial overlap between the estimated home range and the game management units (GMU) limits, we obtained a median number of 8 GMUs overlapping totally or partially with estimated home range polygons. Our study, using GPS telemetry, highlights the complex spatial ecology of the brown bear in the Romanian Carpathians, with larger home range size than those estimated in other European brown bear populations and with daily movements that vary by season and within a large altitude range. Our study supports the implementation of brown bear monitoring at a regional scale, rather than focusing on county level GMUs as the monitoring unit. Article in Journal/Newspaper Brown Bear Monitoring Ursus arctos Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Nature Conservation 26 15 31 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
spellingShingle |
Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 Ioan Mihai Pop Leonardo Bereczky Silviu Chiriac Ruben Iosif Andreea Nita Viorel Dan Popescu Laurențiu Rozylowicz Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians |
topic_facet |
Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
description |
Brown bear movement patterns are driven by their opportunistic feeding behaviour, with their complex life history and seasonality playing an important role in habitat selection. Within a large unfragmented forest habitats persisting over decades in the Romanian Carpathians and a prohibitive hunting management during 40 years of communist centralised game management, information about brown bear movements and spatial ecology is lacking. Using data obtained from 13 brown bears fitted with GPS telemetry collars, we estimated home ranges and core activity areas and we investigated the daily, seasonal and altitudinal movements of brown bears in the Eastern Romanian Carpathians and surrounding high hills. The median MCP95% home ranges of brown bears was 629.92 km2 and the median size of core activity areas (estimated as 50% kernel density) was 36.37 km2, with no significant differences between males and females. The mean daily distance travelled, measured as daily displacement length, was 1818 m and an analysis of seasonal movements indicated significant differences between seasons (greatest movements during the Hyperphagia season). The GPS-collared brown bears travelled between a minimum altitude measured at ~234 m and a maximum at ~1634 m. Analysing the spatial overlap between the estimated home range and the game management units (GMU) limits, we obtained a median number of 8 GMUs overlapping totally or partially with estimated home range polygons. Our study, using GPS telemetry, highlights the complex spatial ecology of the brown bear in the Romanian Carpathians, with larger home range size than those estimated in other European brown bear populations and with daily movements that vary by season and within a large altitude range. Our study supports the implementation of brown bear monitoring at a regional scale, rather than focusing on county level GMUs as the monitoring unit. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ioan Mihai Pop Leonardo Bereczky Silviu Chiriac Ruben Iosif Andreea Nita Viorel Dan Popescu Laurențiu Rozylowicz |
author_facet |
Ioan Mihai Pop Leonardo Bereczky Silviu Chiriac Ruben Iosif Andreea Nita Viorel Dan Popescu Laurențiu Rozylowicz |
author_sort |
Ioan Mihai Pop |
title |
Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians |
title_short |
Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians |
title_full |
Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians |
title_fullStr |
Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians |
title_full_unstemmed |
Movement ecology of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians |
title_sort |
movement ecology of brown bears (ursus arctos) in the romanian eastern carpathians |
publisher |
Pensoft Publishers |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.26.22955 https://doaj.org/article/cbdebc7bb1744a23b4055807e3dd25a4 |
genre |
Brown Bear Monitoring Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Brown Bear Monitoring Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Nature Conservation, Vol 26, Iss , Pp 15-31 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=22955 https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/lib/ajax_srv/article_elements_srv.php?action=download_pdf&item_id=22955 https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/lib/ajax_srv/article_elements_srv.php?action=download_xml&item_id=22955 https://doaj.org/toc/1314-6947 https://doaj.org/toc/1314-3301 doi:10.3897/natureconservation.26.22955 1314-3301 1314-6947 https://doaj.org/article/cbdebc7bb1744a23b4055807e3dd25a4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.26.22955 |
container_title |
Nature Conservation |
container_volume |
26 |
container_start_page |
15 |
op_container_end_page |
31 |
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1766381814343008256 |