Losing seasonal patterns in a hibernating omnivore? Diet quality proxies and faecal cortisol metabolites in brown bears in areas with and without artificial feeding.

ABSTRACT: Bears are omnivores particularly well-adapted to variations in the nutritional composition, quality and availability of food resources. Artificial feeding practices have been shown to strongly influence diet composition and seasonality, as well as to cause alterations in wintering and movement in brown bears (Ursus arctos). In this study, we investigated seasonal differences (hypophagia vs hyperphagia) in food quality of two brown bear subpopulations in the Polish Carpathians using faecal nitrogen (FN) and carbon (FC) estimates. The subpopulations inhabit areas that differ in artificial feeding practices: no artificial feeding occurs in the western subpopulation (Tatra Mountains), while artificial food targeted to ungulates is provided and used year-round in the eastern subpopulation (Bies

SUBMITTER: Sergiel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7660533 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature