Human recreation impacts seasonal activity and occupancy of the American black bear (Ursus americanus) across the urban-wildland interface

Link To Share This Poster: https://cdmcd.co/WkzLPa
Live Discussion Link: https://cdmcd.co/3wqGWz

Tru M. Hubbard, Biology, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, Diana J. R. Lafferty, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS and Michael V Cove, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh

Background/Question/Methods
While protected areas encompass ~15% of Earth’s terrestrial surface and serve an important role in wildlife conservation, most wildlife occur outside protected areas and are subject to varying degrees of human disturbance. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for example, American black bears (Ursus americanus) are relatively common across the forested landscape despite a rapidly growing outdoor recreation industry (e.g., mountain biking, snow biking, snowmobiling, hiking). As a highly mobile, opportunistic species with a large home range, increased human activity across the landscape has the potential to affect black bear spatial and temporal activity, as well as reduce their period of inactivity (i.e., hibernation), both of which may lead to an increase in human-bear conflicts. As such, our goal was to investigate how landscape (e.g., land cover type, distance to water) and anthropogenic (e.g., human presence, recreating type, infrastructure) factors influence black bear occupancy, detection probability, and activity patterns across the urban-wildland interface before and after hibernation. To accomplish our goals, we deployed 30 trail cameras across a 60km2 study area that includes multi-use lands managed by MI-Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy and Hancock Timber Management Group in Marquette County, MI.
Results/Conclusions
Our results indicate black bears occurred at 23 camera sites (~77%), and with a co-occurrence of humans and black bears documented at 10 camera sites (~33%). We observed a ~36%, increase in diurnal activity by black bears following hibernation, as well as greater diurnal activity when cubs were not present and a lower activity level throughout a 24-hour day when cubs were present. We also recorded a ~38% increase in human recreational activity after hibernation, along with a 60% increase in domestic dog activity, which were highly correlated. Further, we found that human presence and human population have a strong negative effect on black bear occupancy across the urban-wildlife interface that varies with the additional effect of seasonality (i.e., before hibernation/after hibernation). Understanding black bear responses to human recreation patterns and variation in environmental factors across the urban-wildland interface may provide useful information for minimizing human-mediated disturbance. Further, the black bear provides a strong ecological model to fuel conservation and management efforts of large, charismatic carnivores to reduce the number of human-wildlife conflicts in an ever-changing anthropogenic world.