Abstract: Once extirpated from eastern Oklahoma due to extensive overharvest and habitat loss, American black bears (Ursus americanus; hereafter “bears”) are now recolonizing areas now altered by human activities and presence. While human population density is rather low throughout southeastern Oklahoma (7.196 people/km2) this region is dominated by agriculture, timber plantations, and recreational areas, all of which have been shown to contribute to shifts in bear spatiotemporal activity and behavior. Further, as a still recolonizing population, bear population density varies across the landscape, contributing to variable levels of intraspecific competition that may result in changing home range size. As bears continue to recolonize this region, their ability to occupy and utilize space will likely vary widely across the study area. Understanding this, the objective of this study is to identify the factors influence bear home range size and space use, with the hypothesis that a combination of individual bear characteristics, bear densities and human impacts will be major contributors to space use. We will utilize GPS data collected from 84 bears from 2014 – 2022 to understand how human activities and areas of impact influence black bear home range size and resource selection in a still recolonizing population.
Preliminary analyses using kernel density estimates (KDE) to estimate home range size indicated black bear home ranges varied widely within the study area (mean = 64.9732 km2, sd = 74.97735 km2). However, the causes of this variability have yet to be determined. Using linear mixed models, we plan to compare individual characteristics of black bears (e.g. age, mass, reproductive status, sex), landscape variables (e.g. landscape heterogeneity, amount of human impact), and bear density estimates to determine factors that influence bear home range sizes in this area. Resource selection functions comparing resource use versus availability will be utilized to examine bear resource use when in proximity to human-impacted areas. Further, by combining temporal data, including season and time of day, we hope to elucidate whether human activities or human-impacted areas can cause temporal shifts in black bear resource use.
