Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden
Understanding a species' feeding ecology is essential for successful management and conservation, because food abundance can influence body mass, survival, reproductive success, movements, and habitat use. We describe annual and seasonal variations in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in sou...
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Language: | English |
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Nordic Council for Wildlife Research
2016
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2426617 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00194 |
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ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/2426617 2023-05-15T13:13:35+02:00 Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden Stenset, Nina Emilie Lutnæs, Paul Antoni Nilsen Bjarnadóttir, Valgerður Dahle, Bjørn Steinar Fossum, Kristin Høivik Jigsved, Patrick Johansen, Thomas Neumann, Wiebke Opseth, Ole Rønning, Oddmund Steyaert, Sam Zedrosser, Andreas Brunberg, Sven Swenson, Jon 2016 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2426617 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00194 eng eng Nordic Council for Wildlife Research Wildlife Biology. 2016, 22 (3), 107-116. urn:issn:0909-6396 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2426617 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00194 cristin:1352185 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.no CC-BY-NC-ND 107-116 22 Wildlife Biology 3 Journal article Peer reviewed 2016 ftntnutrondheimi https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00194 2019-09-17T06:52:07Z Understanding a species' feeding ecology is essential for successful management and conservation, because food abundance can influence body mass, survival, reproductive success, movements, and habitat use. We describe annual and seasonal variations in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in southcentral Sweden, based on analysis of 527 fecal samples from 1994–1996 and 2000–2001. There was distinct seasonal variation in most of the 26 food items we documented. Ungulates, predominantly moose Alces alces, and insects comprised most of the estimated dietary energy content in spring and summer. Insects were represented almost entirely by ants, of which Formica spp. and Camponotus herculeanus were the most common. During autumn, berries dominated the diet. The most important berry species were bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus, crowberry Empetrum hermaphoditum and lingonberry V. vitis-idaea. We determined berry availability by inventorying 308 random plots three times for two consecutive years. These three berries occurred with great spatial, seasonal and annual variation in abundance. The bears showed the strongest positive preference for bilberries, a lesser positive preference for crowberries, but no preference for lingonberries. The proportion of berries in the autmn diet was stable between years, but the relative importance of the species changed, indicating that bears switched to crowberries when bilberries were less abundant. The effects of predicted future climatic change might have severe effects on the availability of the berries, which is the only important food available for fat acquisition prior to hibernation. © 2016 The Authors. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND) < http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ >. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alces alces Crowberry Ursus arctos NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Wildlife Biology 22 3 107 116 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftntnutrondheimi |
language |
English |
description |
Understanding a species' feeding ecology is essential for successful management and conservation, because food abundance can influence body mass, survival, reproductive success, movements, and habitat use. We describe annual and seasonal variations in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in southcentral Sweden, based on analysis of 527 fecal samples from 1994–1996 and 2000–2001. There was distinct seasonal variation in most of the 26 food items we documented. Ungulates, predominantly moose Alces alces, and insects comprised most of the estimated dietary energy content in spring and summer. Insects were represented almost entirely by ants, of which Formica spp. and Camponotus herculeanus were the most common. During autumn, berries dominated the diet. The most important berry species were bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus, crowberry Empetrum hermaphoditum and lingonberry V. vitis-idaea. We determined berry availability by inventorying 308 random plots three times for two consecutive years. These three berries occurred with great spatial, seasonal and annual variation in abundance. The bears showed the strongest positive preference for bilberries, a lesser positive preference for crowberries, but no preference for lingonberries. The proportion of berries in the autmn diet was stable between years, but the relative importance of the species changed, indicating that bears switched to crowberries when bilberries were less abundant. The effects of predicted future climatic change might have severe effects on the availability of the berries, which is the only important food available for fat acquisition prior to hibernation. © 2016 The Authors. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND) < http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ >. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stenset, Nina Emilie Lutnæs, Paul Antoni Nilsen Bjarnadóttir, Valgerður Dahle, Bjørn Steinar Fossum, Kristin Høivik Jigsved, Patrick Johansen, Thomas Neumann, Wiebke Opseth, Ole Rønning, Oddmund Steyaert, Sam Zedrosser, Andreas Brunberg, Sven Swenson, Jon |
spellingShingle |
Stenset, Nina Emilie Lutnæs, Paul Antoni Nilsen Bjarnadóttir, Valgerður Dahle, Bjørn Steinar Fossum, Kristin Høivik Jigsved, Patrick Johansen, Thomas Neumann, Wiebke Opseth, Ole Rønning, Oddmund Steyaert, Sam Zedrosser, Andreas Brunberg, Sven Swenson, Jon Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden |
author_facet |
Stenset, Nina Emilie Lutnæs, Paul Antoni Nilsen Bjarnadóttir, Valgerður Dahle, Bjørn Steinar Fossum, Kristin Høivik Jigsved, Patrick Johansen, Thomas Neumann, Wiebke Opseth, Ole Rønning, Oddmund Steyaert, Sam Zedrosser, Andreas Brunberg, Sven Swenson, Jon |
author_sort |
Stenset, Nina Emilie |
title |
Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden |
title_short |
Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden |
title_full |
Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden |
title_sort |
seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral sweden |
publisher |
Nordic Council for Wildlife Research |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2426617 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00194 |
genre |
Alces alces Crowberry Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Alces alces Crowberry Ursus arctos |
op_source |
107-116 22 Wildlife Biology 3 |
op_relation |
Wildlife Biology. 2016, 22 (3), 107-116. urn:issn:0909-6396 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2426617 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00194 cristin:1352185 |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.no |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00194 |
container_title |
Wildlife Biology |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
107 |
op_container_end_page |
116 |
_version_ |
1766259248090578944 |