Performing Department
Natural Resource Ecology & Management
Non Technical Summary
A spatial understanding of how and why a recolonizing large predator species moves through a human-dominated landscape is essential to predict future areas of expansion of the species, predict and mitigate human-wildlife conflict, provide directed outreach and education to humans in areas of overlap with the predators, and conserve and manage the predator species for its ecological and recreational (consumptive and non-consumptive) values. With black bears recolonizing eastern Oklahoma from Arkansas, after having disappeared from Oklahoma in the early 1900s, our study will use satellite telemetry and spatial analyses to study the variable densities of black bears on the landscape, produce a more accurate population size estimate, identify and model factors that affect young, dispersing black bears when searching for a new home range, and incorporate human acceptance of black bears into a spatial framework to predict areas in the human-dominated landscape in which black bears might be able to persist. The results of our study will inform management of Oklahoma's black bear populations, as well as neighboring states, and develop practices that will help to reduce bear-human conflict while maintaining healthy populations of black bears in eastern Oklahoma. Our results will assist the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation in managing current and future black bear hunting season. The research also provides numerous opportunities for outreach to public schools, landowners, and other groups in Oklahoma.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this research is to develop a more detailed understanding of the spatial ecology of recolonizing black bear populations in human-dominated landscapes which will help predict range expansion by black bears, anticipate the potential for bear-human conflict, and identify, on a spatial scale, the potential for black bear-human coexistence.Objectives:To project population growth of the east-central Oklahoma black bear population by assessing the rate and demography of black bears immigrating from Arkansas and its effect on the demography and population growth of this population.To predict colonization of vacant, suitable habitat by quantifying and modeling the fine-scale movement of young male and female black bears dispersing from their natal home ranges in the east-central Oklahoma population with respect to natural and anthropogenic features in a human-dominated landscape.To produce a more accurate estimate of the black bear population size in southeastern Oklahoma using spatial capture-recapture and mapping variable density of black bears across the landscape.To predict expansion and colonization by black bears in the southeastern Oklahoma black bear population from the perspective of a 'landscape of coexistence', based on black bear responses to natural and anthropogenic features of the landscape, including human attitudes, acceptance, and behaviors toward black bears.
Project Methods
General Capture and Handling Methods:We will use barrel and culvert traps, foot snares, and bucket snares to trap bears. We will immobilize captured bears using Telazol (A.H. Robbins Co., Richmond, VA 23220), a mixture of tiletamine hydrochloride and zolazepam hydrochloride, and Xylazine at a dosage rate of 4.8-7.0 mg/kg (Kreeger and Arnemo 2012). Drugs will be administered to the hind leg or the shoulder using an X-2 Gauged CO? dart pistol (Pneu-Dart, Williamsport, PA 17701) or pole syringe (Zoolu Arms of Omaha, Omaha, NE 68124). We will mark all captured black bears with numbered ear tags and lip tattoos; collect tissue, hair, and blood samples; extract 1 upper premolar for aging purposes (Matson's Laboratory LLC, Milltown, MT 59851; Table 1), and record various morphological measurements. Lip tattoos have successfully identified bears in southeastern Oklahoma that were originally captured 17-20 years earlier, and require no special equipment to read. The hair and tissue samples will be stored for future genetic analyses and the blood samples can be used to monitor disease exposure and health. We will place Iridium satellite collars (Advanced Telemetry Systems, Isanti, MN 55040) on females and select males to assess movements, home-range size, reproduction, and survival.We will locate dens of collared bears during January--March of each year. Yearling and male bears will be checked for collar fit and collars will be replaced as necessary. Hibernating female bears will be sedated to assess their body and collar conditions, collect den site information, and assess reproduction status (litter size and fecundity). Fecundity will be calculated as the average litter size multiplied by the proportion of female newborn cubs divided by the interbirth interval (Lancia et al. 1994). Cubs-of-the-year will be marked with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags (Biomark, Incorporated, Boise, Idaho 83702) because their small size precludes marking with lip tattoos, ear tags, or collars. The sex of the cubs will be determined and they will be weighed and measured. We will collect hair samples from cubs-of-the-year for future genetic analyses.We will use data collected from trapping efforts and collared bears to describe population composition (age distribution and sex ratio), reproduction and survival, and density and population growth. The sex ratio of adults and cubs will be calculated from the capture samples and observations of newborn cubs in dens. Adult female survival rates are the dominant factor affecting population growth in long-lived, iteroparous species such as bears (Eberhardt 1990), and these estimates, along with survival rates of female yearlings and cubs will be used in projection matrices to estimate population growth rate.East-central Oklahoma study area - Objectives 1-2:To gain insight into the recruitment of black bears into Oklahoma from the Ozark region of Arkansas, emphasis will be placed on trapping in Sequoyah and Adair counties along the Arkansas border. Deploying satellite collars on these bears will allow us to determine if these animals are resident to the border area or are moving from Arkansas and establishing home ranges farther into Oklahoma. We will also trap properties outside the core trapping area used in previous studies (centered on Cookson Wildlife Management Area) in Sequoyah, Cherokee, and Adair counties, as well as neighboring counties, as appropriate, to expand our knowledge of the extent and structure of the bear population. We will use cameras and bait sites to identify new areas of interest with bear activity, before setting traps.Also in the northeastern study area, we will visit winter dens of collared females that have yearlings. After sedating the mother, hibernating yearlings will be sedated, marked with ear tags and lip tattoos, and yearling satellite collars will be fitted on both male and female yearlings. These individuals will make up our sample to address dispersal by black bears in northeastern Oklahoma. To learn what features of the environment influence movements and dispersal path of yearling black bears, we will follow the movements of collared yearlings closely, with collars collecting locations every 4-6 hours. Because dispersal in black bears likely lasts >1 year, growth of yearlings, and shorter collar life due to the higher fix rate, we will have to re-trap or visit winter dens of these individuals to replace their collars. In addition to movements, data from these collars will allow us to estimate the survival of young bears and recruitment into the breeding population.We will use step selection function (SSF) analysis (Fortin et al. 2005, Roever et al. 2010, Thurfjell et al. 2014) to investigate the fine-scale influence of landscape features and disturbance on young, dispersing male and female black bears. Step selection analysis compares short-term movements to what is immediately available to the animal-based on its previous location. Closely associated with resource selection functions, SSFs include a temporal component that, in our study, will allow us to understand movement patterns and settlement decisions in establishing the first independent home ranges of dispersing black bears.Southeastern Oklahoma study area - Objectives 3-4:In this study, we will focus trapping of black bears in areas of McCurtain, LeFlore, Pushmataha, and Latimer and neighboring counties outside the core trapping area used in previous studies. This will allow us to fill gaps in our knowledge of bear presence and densities outside the Ouachita National Forest. Trapping in more areas will also allow us to use spatial capture-recapture analysis to estimate bear density as a continuous variable across the landscape and produce a more accurate estimate of population size. We will analyze environmental and anthropogenic features of the landscape associated with high and low densities of black bears, including human population density, distance to roads, distance to human structures, land cover type, terrain ruggedness, and elevation. We will use survey data from our prior human dimensions study (Cleary 2019) to identify clusters (hotspots) of high human acceptance of black bears and clusters of low acceptance in the southeastern region. Acceptance of black bears will be based on the preferred black bear population size by respondents (Cleary 2019). This spatial information will be combined with maps identifying areas of high habitat suitability based on features associated with high bear densities to add human dimensions aspects to visualizing a landscape of coexistence for humans and black bears in southeastern Oklahoma.