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Den selection by barren-ground grizzly bears, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories

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Abstract

Animals living in highly seasonal environments such as the Arctic must cope with periods of reduced resource availability. During periods of food shortage, some resident mammals hibernate and rely on energy stores to overwinter. To conserve energy, hibernating grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) excavate dens that provide thermal insulation and safety. To determine the distribution and habitat characteristics used by grizzly bears for denning in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada, we used kernel density and resource selection function analyses based on 624 den locations collected in 1972–2014. We found that grizzly bear dens were broadly distributed with varying densities over the landscape. Our analyses showed that bears selected den sites with aquatic bed and low shrub land cover, with soil types composed of sand- , gravel- , and glacier-deposited rock, and southeastern- , southwestern- , and northern-facing slopes. Grizzly bears also selected for areas with sloped terrain. Open spruce forest was avoided. Information on grizzly bear denning habitat could be used to inform human land use planning and minimize human–bear conflicts.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Oliver Barker, Robin Baron, Catherine Lambert-Koizumi, and John Nagy for their assistance with this study. Support from the Wildlife Management Advisory Council (Northwest Territories), the Inuvialuit Game Council, the Inuvik Hunters and Trappers Committee, and the Tuktoyaktuk Hunters and Trappers Committee was greatly appreciated. Funding for this study was provided by the University of Alberta, Government of Northwest Territories, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (Inuvik Region), the Inuvialuit Land Claim Wildlife Studies Implementation Fund, ConocoPhillips (North) Canada Limited, Alberta Cooperative Conservation Research Unit, Western Biophysical Program of the Government of Northwest Territories, Polar Continental Shelf Project, Endangered Species Recovery Fund—World Wildlife Fund, Circumpolar/Boreal Alberta Research Grant, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Northern Scientific Training Program, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Some den locations were provided by Imperial Resources Canada and ConocoPhillips (North), and we thank Alan Kennedy and Linda Graf for making their data available. Funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada

    Corey A. Smereka, Nicholas W. Pilfold & Andrew E. Derocher

  2. Mammalogy Department, Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, AB, T5N 0M6, Canada

    Corey A. Smereka & Mark A. Edwards

  3. Wildlife Management, Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, P.O. Box 2749, Inuvik, NT, X0E 0T0, Canada

    Jodie Pongracz & Marsha Branigan

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  1. Corey A. Smereka
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Correspondence to Corey A. Smereka.

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Smereka, C., Edwards, M.A., Pongracz, J. et al. Den selection by barren-ground grizzly bears, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories. Polar Biol 40, 503–516 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1974-2

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