Black Bear Behavior and Movements Are Not Definitive Measures of Anthropogenic Food Use.

ABSTRACT: Increasing human-bear conflicts are a growing concern, and managers often assume bears in developed areas are food-conditioned. We examined the relationship between human-bear conflicts and food conditioning by analyzing isotopic values of hair from black bears (Ursus americanus floridanus) involved in research (n = 34) and conflicts (n = 45). We separated research bears into wild and developed subgroups based on the impervious surface within their home ranges and separated conflict bears based on observations of human food consumption (anthropogenic = observations; management = no observations). We initially assumed wild bears were not food conditioned and anthropogenic bears were. However, using isotopic values, we classified 79% of

SUBMITTER: Hardeman DW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10000168 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature