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Rachel Mazur, Karen Folger, and Pete Klimley

Variation in Black Bear Home Ranges in Relation to Preferred Foods in Sequoia & Kings Canyon Nat’l Parks. Rachel Mazur, Karen Folger, and Pete Klimley. Location of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, National Parks within California. Research Questions:

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Rachel Mazur, Karen Folger, and Pete Klimley

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  1. Variation in Black Bear Home Ranges in Relation to Preferred Foods in Sequoia & Kings Canyon Nat’l Parks Rachel Mazur, Karen Folger, and Pete Klimley

  2. Location of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, National Parks within California

  3. Research Questions: • How much do the sizes of black bear home ranges vary by year? • Is it possible to explain any variation by measuring the availability of critical fall foods? • Are bears exhibiting preferences among habitat types or simply using them in proportion to their availability? • Are there fewer human-bear incidents when bears are foraging on higher quality foods?

  4. Scenario 1 KEY = Summer Habitat Scenario 2 = Fall Habitat = Bear’s Range Scenario 3

  5. GPS Radio Collars • Wild adult female bears • Store-on-board units – programmed to fall off • Locations recorded every hour (Aug-Oct) • 1 Bear in 2004 • 10 Bears each in 2005 and 2006 • 1 Bear had data for both 2004 and 2005 • 5 Bears had data for both 2005 and 2006

  6. Core Area Mapping from GPS points • Kernals used to calculated home ranges using Home Range Tools extension to ArcGIS • Old days used VHF telemetry with a few points to estimate • Core areas are most used areas within Home Range

  7. Total Habitat Area – All Bears Core Habitat Area – All Bears

  8. Variation in annual acorn crops in Sequoia National Park 2004-2006

  9. 2004 Bear

  10. 2005 Bear

  11. 2005 2006 Relationships between food source availability and core use areas

  12. Scenario 1 KEY = Summer Habitat Scenario 2 = Fall Habitat = Bear’s Range Scenario 3

  13. Human-Bear Incidents

  14. Research Questions: • How much do the sizes of black bear home ranges vary by year? Depends on food. • Is it possible to explain any variation by measuring the availability of critical fall foods? YES! • Are bears exhibiting preferences among habitat types or simply using them in proportion to their availability? QUALITY! • Are there fewer human-bear incidents when bears are foraging on higher quality foods? YES!

  15. 2007 and 2008 Data • 9 Collars on in 2007 for 2 years • Collars to fall off October 31, 2008

  16. Please save the bears.

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