Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food?
Large carnivores that approach human settlements are usually considered a threat to human property and safety. The prevailing paradigm, that such ‘problem’ animals approach settlements in search of food, ignores their social organization. Based on feces, we compared the diet of individual brown bear...
Published in: | Biological Conservation |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Elsevier Science
2014
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10852/43126 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-47509 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.003 |
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ftoslouniv:oai:www.duo.uio.no:10852/43126 2023-05-15T18:42:10+02:00 Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? Elfström, Marcus Davey, Marie Louise Zedrosser, Andreas Müller, Martin De Barba, Marta Støen, Ole-Gunnar Miquel, Christian Taberlet, Pierre Hackländer, Klaus Swenson, Jon 2014-11-16T21:04:25Z http://hdl.handle.net/10852/43126 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-47509 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.003 EN eng Elsevier Science http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-47509 Elfström, Marcus Davey, Marie Louise Zedrosser, Andreas Müller, Martin De Barba, Marta Støen, Ole-Gunnar Miquel, Christian Taberlet, Pierre Hackländer, Klaus Swenson, Jon . Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food?. Biological Conservation. 2014, 178, 128-135 http://hdl.handle.net/10852/43126 1173416 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Biological Conservation&rft.volume=178&rft.spage=128&rft.date=2014 Biological Conservation 178 128 135 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.003 URN:NBN:no-47509 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/43126/1/Swenson%2BDo%2BScandinavian%2BBiolCons%2B178%2B2014.pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ CC-BY-NC-ND 0006-3207 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed PublishedVersion 2014 ftoslouniv https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.003 2020-06-21T08:48:14Z Large carnivores that approach human settlements are usually considered a threat to human property and safety. The prevailing paradigm, that such ‘problem’ animals approach settlements in search of food, ignores their social organization. Based on feces, we compared the diet of individual brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Sweden in relation to settlements. Nutritive quality was quantified using near-infrared spectroscopy, and food items were identified using a DNA metabarcoding approach. We analyzed the diet of 21 bears during 36 visits near (<150 m) settlements, and the corresponding diet when the same bears were in remote areas (>600 m from settlements; constituting 95% of bears’ habitat use). The food-search hypothesis predicted a different and higher-quality diet when an individual was close to settlements than when in a remote area. Less than 1.9% of the variation in diet was associated with location, giving no support for the food-search hypothesis. However, females with yearlings had 5.1% ± 2.9 (SE) lower fecal protein content than adult males. In addition, females with young (cubs-of-the-year or yearlings) exploited slaughter remains less often than other bears. This suggests that the diet of predation-vulnerable bears may have been affected by despotic behavior of dominant conspecifics. We provide evidence against the paradigm that food search explained the occurrence of brown bears near settlements and suggest that predation-vulnerable bears may use habitation as a human shield without being food conditioned. Management authorities should consider this knowledge when dealing with large carnivores near settlements. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) Slaughter ENVELOPE(-85.633,-85.633,-78.617,-78.617) Biological Conservation 178 128 135 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) |
op_collection_id |
ftoslouniv |
language |
English |
description |
Large carnivores that approach human settlements are usually considered a threat to human property and safety. The prevailing paradigm, that such ‘problem’ animals approach settlements in search of food, ignores their social organization. Based on feces, we compared the diet of individual brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Sweden in relation to settlements. Nutritive quality was quantified using near-infrared spectroscopy, and food items were identified using a DNA metabarcoding approach. We analyzed the diet of 21 bears during 36 visits near (<150 m) settlements, and the corresponding diet when the same bears were in remote areas (>600 m from settlements; constituting 95% of bears’ habitat use). The food-search hypothesis predicted a different and higher-quality diet when an individual was close to settlements than when in a remote area. Less than 1.9% of the variation in diet was associated with location, giving no support for the food-search hypothesis. However, females with yearlings had 5.1% ± 2.9 (SE) lower fecal protein content than adult males. In addition, females with young (cubs-of-the-year or yearlings) exploited slaughter remains less often than other bears. This suggests that the diet of predation-vulnerable bears may have been affected by despotic behavior of dominant conspecifics. We provide evidence against the paradigm that food search explained the occurrence of brown bears near settlements and suggest that predation-vulnerable bears may use habitation as a human shield without being food conditioned. Management authorities should consider this knowledge when dealing with large carnivores near settlements. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Elfström, Marcus Davey, Marie Louise Zedrosser, Andreas Müller, Martin De Barba, Marta Støen, Ole-Gunnar Miquel, Christian Taberlet, Pierre Hackländer, Klaus Swenson, Jon |
spellingShingle |
Elfström, Marcus Davey, Marie Louise Zedrosser, Andreas Müller, Martin De Barba, Marta Støen, Ole-Gunnar Miquel, Christian Taberlet, Pierre Hackländer, Klaus Swenson, Jon Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? |
author_facet |
Elfström, Marcus Davey, Marie Louise Zedrosser, Andreas Müller, Martin De Barba, Marta Støen, Ole-Gunnar Miquel, Christian Taberlet, Pierre Hackländer, Klaus Swenson, Jon |
author_sort |
Elfström, Marcus |
title |
Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? |
title_short |
Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? |
title_full |
Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? |
title_fullStr |
Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? |
title_sort |
do scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food? |
publisher |
Elsevier Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10852/43126 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-47509 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.003 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-85.633,-85.633,-78.617,-78.617) |
geographic |
Slaughter |
geographic_facet |
Slaughter |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
0006-3207 |
op_relation |
http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-47509 Elfström, Marcus Davey, Marie Louise Zedrosser, Andreas Müller, Martin De Barba, Marta Støen, Ole-Gunnar Miquel, Christian Taberlet, Pierre Hackländer, Klaus Swenson, Jon . Do Scandinavian brown bears approach settlements to obtain high-quality food?. Biological Conservation. 2014, 178, 128-135 http://hdl.handle.net/10852/43126 1173416 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Biological Conservation&rft.volume=178&rft.spage=128&rft.date=2014 Biological Conservation 178 128 135 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.003 URN:NBN:no-47509 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/43126/1/Swenson%2BDo%2BScandinavian%2BBiolCons%2B178%2B2014.pdf |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.003 |
container_title |
Biological Conservation |
container_volume |
178 |
container_start_page |
128 |
op_container_end_page |
135 |
_version_ |
1766231785598877696 |