Spatial and temporal response of grizzly bears to recreational use on trails

摘要: Many human activities affect how bears use habitat. The effects of motorized recreational vehicle on trails have not been formally assessed previously. Potential include displacement from and avoidance high quality habitat, either temporally or spatially, which could reproduction survival result in fewer bears. Focusing displacement, we used hourly locations four GPS-collared female the Badger-Two Medicine area Lewis Clark National Forest to assess spatial temporal distributions relative trail trails. When availability was defined as circles equal 95 percent move distances around previous bear location, all areas near less than expected. We iteratively reclassified habitat versus non-trail increasing buffers 50m increments until reached a buffer-width at proportion availability. Compositional analysis results showed that selected against within 250 - 900m ATV 450 600m single-track trails, had some motorbike use. distance approximated varied by individual bear, time day, type trail. Log-ratio differences were selection. Bears likely spend with (~5 trips/day average) low an information-theoretic approach select between nonlinear regression models variables included estimates, non-motorized density.