Very Small Home Ranges of Two Gravid European Brown Bears during Hyperphagia

Schulte L, De Angelis D, Babic N, Reljić S. Very Small Home Ranges of Two Gravid European Brown Bears during Hyperphagia. Animals . 2021;11(12):3580. In September 2019, two gravid female brown bears (Ursus arctos) were captured and equipped with GPS/GSM collars in Paklenica National Park (Croatia)....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals
Main Authors: Schulte, Laura, De Angelis, Daniele, Babic, Natarsha, Reljić, Slaven
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2021
Subjects:
seasonal home range
Brownian Bridge Movement Model
GIS analyses
Ursus arctos
GPS-telemetry
gravidity
Paklenica National Park
Velebit Mountains
Croatia
ddc:590
Online Access:https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29601534
https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/record/2960153
https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2960153/2960154
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Summary:Schulte L, De Angelis D, Babic N, Reljić S. Very Small Home Ranges of Two Gravid European Brown Bears during Hyperphagia. Animals . 2021;11(12):3580. In September 2019, two gravid female brown bears (Ursus arctos) were captured and equipped with GPS/GSM collars in Paklenica National Park (Croatia). Home ranges during hyperphagia were analyzed to describe the spatiotemporal requirements. Mean seasonal home ranges were very small with 9.2 km2 and 7.5 km2 (Brownian Bridge Movement Model 95%). During the tracking period, both bears used different territories and showed little to no use of overlapping area. The bears in our study spent a considerable time in proximity of artificial feeding sites, indicating a probable use of these structures as a food resource (mean 15.7% and 30.7%). Furthermore, the bears approached very close to human structures such as 8.9 m and 4.4 m. As most encounters between humans and bears occur during hyperphagia, it is important to offer refugia from human disturbance, especially as the National Park is not only used by residents, but also by tourists. To adapt management according to the animal’s needs, further studies should include more individuals from different age and sex classes. Both females were gravid. It remains unclear whether gravidity has an effect on the home range and should be further investigated.

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