Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population

Eighty-three (21M, 62F) of 194 black bears captured during 1994-1996 were equipped with radio collars. Annual survival rates estimated with Kaplain-Meier staggered entry approach for radio collared adult females, adult males, subadult females, and subadult males were 95.3, 100.0, 90.4 and 50.0% res...

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Main Author: Higgins, Jennifer C.
Other Authors: Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences
Format: Others
Published: Virginia Tech 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10919/36765
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-51297-181141/
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spelling ndltd-VTETD-oai-vtechworks.lib.vt.edu-10919-367652020-09-29T05:44:09Z Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population Higgins, Jennifer C. Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Vaughan, Michael R. Martin, Dennis D. Kirkpatrick, Roy L. Haas, Carola A. Black bear survival exploited home range Eighty-three (21M, 62F) of 194 black bears captured during 1994-1996 were equipped with radio collars. Annual survival rates estimated with Kaplain-Meier staggered entry approach for radio collared adult females, adult males, subadult females, and subadult males were 95.3, 100.0, 90.4 and 50.0% respectively. Hunting, handling, vehicle collisions, and natural causes accounted for 81.0, 11.1, 3.2, and 1.6% of mortality. Twenty, 9.8, and 70.6 % of bears harvested were harvested in the deer firearm season, the deer archery season, and the bear firearm season, respectively. Twenty-three cubs were equipped with expandable radio collars (11M,10F) or transmitters implanted subcutaneously (2M,0F) in 1995-1996. Six cubs (4M, 2F) died, 6 (3M,3F) survived their first year, and the status of 11 cubs (6M, 5F) was unknown. Survival rates (date marked until 4 December) estimated with Kaplain-Meier and Heisey-Fuller were 64.3 and 64.7% respectively. Interval survival rates were 71% (15 March to 31 May), 100% (1 June to 31 July), 92% (1 August to 31 August), and 100% (1 September to 4 December). Intraspecific aggression (33.3%), starvation (16.7%), unknown causes (16.7%) and predation (16.7%) were the causes of mortality. Total home range size for males and adult, subadult, and transitional age females were 7.2, 5.5, 5.6 and 7.2 km2 (95% MCP) and 11.2, 6.8, 9.0, and 10.0 km2 (95% normal kernel). Females with cubs had larger fall ranges than spring and summer ranges. Seasonal ranges of solitary females did not differ when estimated with MCP. Bears exhibited home range overlap among and within sex classes. Master of Science 2014-03-14T20:51:44Z 2014-03-14T20:51:44Z 1997-04-25 1997-04-25 1998-09-02 1997-09-02 Thesis etd-51297-181141 http://hdl.handle.net/10919/36765 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-51297-181141/ THESIS2.PDF In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ application/pdf Virginia Tech
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic Black bear
survival
exploited
home range
spellingShingle Black bear
survival
exploited
home range
Higgins, Jennifer C.
Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population
description Eighty-three (21M, 62F) of 194 black bears captured during 1994-1996 were equipped with radio collars. Annual survival rates estimated with Kaplain-Meier staggered entry approach for radio collared adult females, adult males, subadult females, and subadult males were 95.3, 100.0, 90.4 and 50.0% respectively. Hunting, handling, vehicle collisions, and natural causes accounted for 81.0, 11.1, 3.2, and 1.6% of mortality. Twenty, 9.8, and 70.6 % of bears harvested were harvested in the deer firearm season, the deer archery season, and the bear firearm season, respectively. Twenty-three cubs were equipped with expandable radio collars (11M,10F) or transmitters implanted subcutaneously (2M,0F) in 1995-1996. Six cubs (4M, 2F) died, 6 (3M,3F) survived their first year, and the status of 11 cubs (6M, 5F) was unknown. Survival rates (date marked until 4 December) estimated with Kaplain-Meier and Heisey-Fuller were 64.3 and 64.7% respectively. Interval survival rates were 71% (15 March to 31 May), 100% (1 June to 31 July), 92% (1 August to 31 August), and 100% (1 September to 4 December). Intraspecific aggression (33.3%), starvation (16.7%), unknown causes (16.7%) and predation (16.7%) were the causes of mortality. Total home range size for males and adult, subadult, and transitional age females were 7.2, 5.5, 5.6 and 7.2 km2 (95% MCP) and 11.2, 6.8, 9.0, and 10.0 km2 (95% normal kernel). Females with cubs had larger fall ranges than spring and summer ranges. Seasonal ranges of solitary females did not differ when estimated with MCP. Bears exhibited home range overlap among and within sex classes. === Master of Science
author2 Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences
author_facet Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences
Higgins, Jennifer C.
author Higgins, Jennifer C.
author_sort Higgins, Jennifer C.
title Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population
title_short Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population
title_full Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population
title_fullStr Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population
title_full_unstemmed Survival, Home Range and Spatial Relationships of Virginia's Exploited Black Bear Population
title_sort survival, home range and spatial relationships of virginia's exploited black bear population
publisher Virginia Tech
publishDate 2014
url http://hdl.handle.net/10919/36765
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-51297-181141/
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