Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations
Large predators often are believed to cause declines in hunter harvests of ungulates due to direct competition for prey with hunters. In Alberta, predators of elk (Cervus elaphus), including grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), cougar (Puma concolor), and wolf (Canis lupus), have increased in recent years....
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9604012 2023-05-15T15:50:35+02:00 Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations Trump, Tyler Knopff, Kyle Morehouse, Andrea Boyce, Mark S. 2022-10-26 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9604012/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36288266 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269407 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9604012/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36288266 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269407 © 2022 Trump et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY PLoS One Research Article Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269407 2022-10-30T01:12:12Z Large predators often are believed to cause declines in hunter harvests of ungulates due to direct competition for prey with hunters. In Alberta, predators of elk (Cervus elaphus), including grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), cougar (Puma concolor), and wolf (Canis lupus), have increased in recent years. We used trend analysis replicated by Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) to examine regional trends in elk harvest and hunter success. Over a 26-yr period, average harvest of elk increased by 5.46% per year for unrestricted bull and by 6.64% per year for limited-quota seasons. Also, over the same time frame, average hunter success increased by 0.2% per year for unrestricted bull and by 0.3% per year for limited-quota seasons, but no trend was detected in hunter effort (P>0.05). Our results show that increasing large-predator populations do not necessarily reduce hunter harvest of elk, and we only found evidence for this in Alberta’s mountain WMUs where predation on elk calves has reduced recruitment. Furthermore, data indicate that Alberta’s elk harvest management has been sustainable, i.e., hunting has continued while populations of elk have increased throughout most of the province. Wildlife agencies can justify commitments to long-term population monitoring because data allow adaptive management and can inform stakeholders on the status of populations. Text Canis lupus Ursus arctos PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 17 10 e0269407 |
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Research Article Trump, Tyler Knopff, Kyle Morehouse, Andrea Boyce, Mark S. Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations |
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Research Article |
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Large predators often are believed to cause declines in hunter harvests of ungulates due to direct competition for prey with hunters. In Alberta, predators of elk (Cervus elaphus), including grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), cougar (Puma concolor), and wolf (Canis lupus), have increased in recent years. We used trend analysis replicated by Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) to examine regional trends in elk harvest and hunter success. Over a 26-yr period, average harvest of elk increased by 5.46% per year for unrestricted bull and by 6.64% per year for limited-quota seasons. Also, over the same time frame, average hunter success increased by 0.2% per year for unrestricted bull and by 0.3% per year for limited-quota seasons, but no trend was detected in hunter effort (P>0.05). Our results show that increasing large-predator populations do not necessarily reduce hunter harvest of elk, and we only found evidence for this in Alberta’s mountain WMUs where predation on elk calves has reduced recruitment. Furthermore, data indicate that Alberta’s elk harvest management has been sustainable, i.e., hunting has continued while populations of elk have increased throughout most of the province. Wildlife agencies can justify commitments to long-term population monitoring because data allow adaptive management and can inform stakeholders on the status of populations. |
format |
Text |
author |
Trump, Tyler Knopff, Kyle Morehouse, Andrea Boyce, Mark S. |
author_facet |
Trump, Tyler Knopff, Kyle Morehouse, Andrea Boyce, Mark S. |
author_sort |
Trump, Tyler |
title |
Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations |
title_short |
Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations |
title_full |
Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations |
title_fullStr |
Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sustainable elk harvests in Alberta with increasing predator populations |
title_sort |
sustainable elk harvests in alberta with increasing predator populations |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9604012/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36288266 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269407 |
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Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
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Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
op_source |
PLoS One |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9604012/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36288266 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269407 |
op_rights |
© 2022 Trump et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269407 |
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PLOS ONE |
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17 |
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10 |
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e0269407 |
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