Innovation Anthology #101: Vice-President of External Relations
For the last eight years, biologist Dr. Sophie Czetwertynski has studied the movements of black bears in northeastern Alberta.
Using GPS collars, she followed bears on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range where there is no hunting and compared them to bears where there is hunting.
Her concern was whether hunting disrupts the social system of bears, leading to greater cub mortality.
Dr. Czetwertynski’s research proved this was not the case.
DR. SOPHIE CZETWERTYNSKI: In the unhunted area where we had higher cub mortality, females and males used quite different habitats compared to the hunted area where there was higher cub survival and females and males were more likely to use similar habitats. And so this suggested that in areas where there are these larger males which haven’t been removed by hunting, females are actually pushed out of better habitat. What actually affects female cub survival and their movements is the probability of encountering a male.
For management purposes, the research of Dr. Sophie Czetwertynski also suggests that encouraging the harvest of male black bears in riparian zones could improve habitat selection by female black bears.
Thanks today to the Alberta Conservation Association.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Robert van Adrichem,
University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, vanadric@unbc.ca
Sponsor
Program Date: 2008-01-22