Use of Lodgepole Pine Cover Types by Yellowstone Grizzly Bears

摘要: Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests are a large and dynamic part of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) habitat in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Research other areas suggests that bears select for young open forest stands, especially grazing feeding on berries. Management guidelines accordingly recommend timber harvest as technique improving potentially dominated by lodgepole pine. In this paper I examine use area, test several hypotheses with relevance to new generation management guidelines. Differences selection cover types (defined basis stand age structure) were not pronounced. Selection furthermore varied among years, areas, individuals. Positive any type was uncommon. Estimates took 5-11 years or 4-12 adult females stabilize, depending upon type. The variances estimates tended stabilize after 3-5 sample more-or-less stable slightly increasing progressively increased area. There no conclusive evidence Yellowstone's grizzlies favored (<40 yr) stands general their infrequent On hand, these results corroborated previous observations and/or wet fertile sites grazing. These also supported proposition temporally spatially robust inferences require extensive, long-duration studies, wide-ranging vertebrates like bears.