Spatiotemporal Clusters of GPS Locations and Prediction of Grizzly Bear Behaviour

Changes to grizzly bears foraging patterns caused by natural or anthropogenic alterations in their environment could have substantial consequences for both ungulate populations of prey and for bears in Alberta, where the species is considered as “Threatened”. I developed a method for identifying for...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kermish-Wells, Joseph
Other Authors: Musiani, Marco, Hall-Beyer, Mryka, Massolo, Alessandro, Stenhouse, Gordon
Format: Master Thesis
Language:English
Published: Environmental Design 2017
Subjects:
Forestry and Wildlife
Ecology
Grizzly bear
Ursus arctos
GPS
Space-time clusters
West-central Alberta
Behaviour prediction
Foraging
Predation
Bedding
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3954
https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/27847
Description
Summary:Changes to grizzly bears foraging patterns caused by natural or anthropogenic alterations in their environment could have substantial consequences for both ungulate populations of prey and for bears in Alberta, where the species is considered as “Threatened”. I developed a method for identifying foraging sites of bears fitted with Geographic Positioning System collars, which allowed downloads of locations through satellites. Using spatiotemporal collar data and landscape data I created logistic regression models to predict occurrence of bedding, predation, and other foraging behaviours. I was therefore able to precisely identify sites where grizzly bears concentrated their activity and also increased the predictability of predation event locations by 2.75 times, compared to visits of random GPS-collar locations. My study also determined the natural and human factors influencing bear behavioural patterns, prominently forestry operations and human infrastructure; i.e. factors to be considered in conservation planning for grizzly bears.

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