Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore
Human–wildlife conflict is a leading cause of adult mortality for large carnivores worldwide. Train collision is the primary cause of mortality for threatened grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Banff National Park. We investigated the use of stable isotope analysis as a tool for identifying bears that...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4151821 2023-05-15T18:42:05+02:00 Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore Hopkins, John B. Whittington, Jesse Clevenger, Anthony P. Sawaya, Michael A. St. Clair, Colleen Cassady 2014-07-03 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4151821 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24936982 https://doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2014.922555 en eng Taylor & Francis http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24936982 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2014.922555 © 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted. CC-BY-NC Stable Isotopes in Mammals Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2014.922555 2014-09-14T00:57:01Z Human–wildlife conflict is a leading cause of adult mortality for large carnivores worldwide. Train collision is the primary cause of mortality for threatened grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Banff National Park. We investigated the use of stable isotope analysis as a tool for identifying bears that use the railway in Banff. Rail-associated bears had higher δ15N and δ34S values than bears sampled away from the rail, but similar δ13C values. Because elevated δ15N values are indicative of higher animal protein consumption, rail-associated bears likely preyed on ungulates that foraged along the rail or scavenged on train-killed animals. The higher δ34S values in bear hair could have resulted from bears consuming sulfur pellets spilled on the rail or through the uptake of sulfur in the plants bears or animals consumed. Similar δ13C values suggest that the two types of bears had generally similar plant-based diets. Results from this study suggest that stable isotopes analysis could be used as a non-invasive, affordable, and efficient technique to identify and monitor bears that forage on the railway in Banff and potentially other transportation corridors worldwide. Text Ursus arctos PubMed Central (PMC) Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies 50 3 322 331 |
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Open Polar |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Stable Isotopes in Mammals |
spellingShingle |
Stable Isotopes in Mammals Hopkins, John B. Whittington, Jesse Clevenger, Anthony P. Sawaya, Michael A. St. Clair, Colleen Cassady Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore |
topic_facet |
Stable Isotopes in Mammals |
description |
Human–wildlife conflict is a leading cause of adult mortality for large carnivores worldwide. Train collision is the primary cause of mortality for threatened grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Banff National Park. We investigated the use of stable isotope analysis as a tool for identifying bears that use the railway in Banff. Rail-associated bears had higher δ15N and δ34S values than bears sampled away from the rail, but similar δ13C values. Because elevated δ15N values are indicative of higher animal protein consumption, rail-associated bears likely preyed on ungulates that foraged along the rail or scavenged on train-killed animals. The higher δ34S values in bear hair could have resulted from bears consuming sulfur pellets spilled on the rail or through the uptake of sulfur in the plants bears or animals consumed. Similar δ13C values suggest that the two types of bears had generally similar plant-based diets. Results from this study suggest that stable isotopes analysis could be used as a non-invasive, affordable, and efficient technique to identify and monitor bears that forage on the railway in Banff and potentially other transportation corridors worldwide. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hopkins, John B. Whittington, Jesse Clevenger, Anthony P. Sawaya, Michael A. St. Clair, Colleen Cassady |
author_facet |
Hopkins, John B. Whittington, Jesse Clevenger, Anthony P. Sawaya, Michael A. St. Clair, Colleen Cassady |
author_sort |
Hopkins, John B. |
title |
Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore |
title_short |
Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore |
title_full |
Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore |
title_fullStr |
Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore |
title_sort |
stable isotopes reveal rail-associated behavior in a threatened carnivore |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4151821 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24936982 https://doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2014.922555 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24936982 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2014.922555 |
op_rights |
© 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2014.922555 |
container_title |
Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies |
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50 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
322 |
op_container_end_page |
331 |
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1766231685789122560 |