The persistence of grizzly bears (<i>Ursus arctos</i>) in western Alberta is threatened by increasing human activities on the landscape. The Foothills Research Institute Grizzly Bear Program (FRIGBP) hypothesizes human-caused landscape change in Alberta causes long-term stress in individual bears, resulting in impaired biological functions and, when many bears are affected, decreased population performance. To facilitate the evaluation of individual grizzly bear health within the FRIGBP, the objective of my research was to develop and assess the usefulness of a health function score system for grizzly bears. From a large set of complex biological data collected from grizzly bears from 1999 to 2007, I merged 14 � constituent� variables into four health functions; growth, immunity, movement, and stress. For each health function, I calculated individual scores by adding ranked and weighted variable percentiles. I found that health function scores corresponded well with health status of individual bears based on values for multiple constituent variables. The score system facilitated quick screening of health in individual bears, identification of bears with reduced health, and comparison of health profiles between bears. I examined the usefulness of the score system by evaluating relationships presumed to exist under the working hypothesis of the FRIGBP. Results generated from health function scores were compared with those from constituent variable values using statistical and graphical techniques. I concluded that scores likely provided clearer depiction of wildlife health relationships than did constituent variables because they were not influenced by capture method, sex, or outlying observations. By using the score system, I found support for the proposed positive relationship between human-affected landscape condition and stress, but not for inverse relationships between stress and other health functions. The usefulness of the score system could be increased by minimizing use of redundant constituent variables, e.g., in growth and immunity, and removing the influence of potential confounding factors, e.g., capture.

A framework designed to guide the effective use of remote sensing in large-area, multi-jurisdictional habitat mapping studies has been developed. Based on hierarchy theory and the remote sensing scene model, the approach advocates (i) identifying the key physical attributes operating on the landscape; (ii) selecting a series of suitable remote sensing data whose spatial, spectral, radiometric, and temporal characteristics correspond to the attributes of interest; and (iii) applying an intelligent succession of scale-sensitive data processing techniques that are capable of delivering the desired information. The approach differs substantially from the single-map, classification-based strategies that have largely dominated the wildlife literature, and is designed to deliver a sophisticated, multi-layer information base that is capable of supporting a variety of management objectives. The framework was implemented in the creation of a multi-layer database composed of land cover, crown closure, species composition, and leaf area index (LAI) phenology over more than 100,000 km² in west-central Alberta. Generated through a combination of object-oriented classification, conventional regression, and generalized linear models, the products represent a high-quality, flexible information base constructed over an exceptionally challenging multi-jurisdictional environment. A quantitative comparison with two alternative large-area information sources&mdash;the Alberta Vegetation Inventory and a conventional classification-based land-cover map&mdash;showed that the thesis database had the highest map quality and was best capable of explaining both individual&mdash;and population-level resource selection by grizzly bears.

A framework designed to guide the effective use of remote sensing in large-area, multi-jurisdictional habitat mapping studies has been developed. Based on hierarchy theory and the remote sensing scene model, the approach advocates (i) identifying the key physical attributes operating on the landscape; (ii) selecting a series of suitable remote sensing data whose spatial, spectral, radiometric, and temporal characteristics correspond to the attributes of interest; and (iii) applying an intelligent succession of scale-sensitive data processing techniques that are capable of delivering the desired information. The approach differs substantially from the single-map, classification-based strategies that have largely dominated the wildlife literature, and is designed to deliver a sophisticated, multi-layer information base that is capable of supporting a variety of management objectives. The framework was implemented in the creation of a multi-layer database composed of land cover, crown closure, species composition, and leaf area index (LAI) phenology over more than 100,000 km² in west-central Alberta. Generated through a combination of object-oriented classification, conventional regression, and generalized linear models, the products represent a high-quality, flexible information base constructed over an exceptionally challenging multi-jurisdictional environment. A quantitative comparison with two alternative large-area information sources&mdash;the Alberta Vegetation Inventory and a conventional classification-based land-cover map&mdash;showed that the thesis database had the highest map quality and was best capable of explaining both individual&mdash;and population-level resource selection by grizzly bears.

Improvements in GPS tracking technologies have resulted in the collection of high resolution movement datasets for a range of wildlife species. In combination with new high resolution remote sensing products, researchers now have the ability to ask complex questions regarding animal movement in heterogeneous landscapes. However, there currently exists a dearth of analytical approaches to combine movement data with environmental variables. Developing methods to examine wildlife movement-environment interactions are particularly relevant given our unprecedented access to high resolution data; however, the analytical and technical challenges of integrating two disparate data types have yet to be effectively overcome. In the analyses presented in this thesis, I examine current approaches for linking wildlife movement to the physical environment, and introduce a data-driven method for examining wildlife movement-environment interactions. The first analysis consists of a review of existing tools in wildlife movement analysis, specifically tools supported within R statistical software, to highlight any existing methodological opportunities and limitations associated with relating movement to landscape features. The review highlights R’s strengths as an integrated toolbox for exploratory analyses, and the current lack of applications for linking high density telemetry datasets with environmental variables. AdehabitatLT was the most functional package available, offering the greatest variety of analysis options. Due to the comprehensive nature of adehabitatLT, I recommend that future method development be implemented through its package specific framework. Extending the first analysis, the second portion of this research introduces a data-driven method, based in semivariogram modelling, for quantifying wildlife movement patterns relative to linear features. The semivariogram-based method is applied to grizzly bear telemetry data to quantify how grizzly bear movement patterns change in relation to roads. The semivariogram-based method demonstrated that the bears’ spatial scale of response ranged from 35 m- 90 m from roads but varied by age, sex, and season. Applying the scales of response to link near-road movement patterns to survival and mortality, revealed that bears that were killed displayed less-risk adverse movements near roads than bears that survived (i.e., longer step lengths and more day light movements around roads). Given this pattern, my data suggest a minimum vegetation buffer of 90 m to serve as screening cover along roadsides to help mitigate the effects of roads on grizzly bear populations in west-central Alberta, Canada. Through the development of data-driven methods in wildlife movement analysis, I can realize the full potential of high resolution telemetry datasets. Data-driven methods reduce the subjectivity within movement analyses, providing more relevant measures of wildlife response to environment. The semivariogram-based method can identify definitive zones of influence around linear disturbance features in any wildlife system, thereby, providing managers with spatially explicit, data-driven insights to reduce impacts on wildlife in multi-use landscapes. / Graduate

No description available.

Understanding the use of habitat by large carnivores in the presence of ever increasing anthropogenic disturbance is crucial to managing threatened species. In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in west-central Alberta, Canada the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) faces such disturbance, and is especially susceptible due to their low fecundity and large home ranges. Grizzly bear mortality increases with proximity to human disturbance, leading to the conclusion that anthropogenic forest disturbance is incompatible with successful grizzly bear habitat The purpose of this research is to evaluate grizzly bear habitat use as it relates to forest disturbance. The general approach was to quantify grizzly bear habitat use and compare to an expectation of use calculated through conditional randomization. The research involved two distinct analyses. First, grizzly bear use of natural edges (transitions between land cover classes) and anthropogenic landscape edges (roads, pipelines, and forest harvests) was quantified and compared between seasons and sex. Females were found to use anthropogenic edges more than natural edges, whereas males used natural edges more. Despite the increased mortality threat arising from increased human access around anthropogenic disturbances, female grizzly bears are using anthropogenic edges more than natural edges, meaning anthropogenic edges may not be incompatible with successful grizzly bear populations. Knowing that female grizzly bears use anthropogenic edges more allows managers to limit access to areas with specific edges desirable to female bears. While creating more disturbances is not the solution to managing for better grizzly bear habitat, limiting human access to areas of beneficial edge could decrease mortality risk. Knowing that grizzly bears use edges, the second analysis quantified use of forest disturbances of varying ages, and determined what disturbance characteristics drive grizzly bear selection of forest disturbances. A 40-year forest disturbance dataset was generated through image differencing of the tasselled cap angle transformation of Landsat imagery (MSS, TM, ETM+). Disturbances were grouped into decades, and compared. Disturbances were labelled as selected or not selected through a randomization process, and selected disturbances were compared to not-selected disturbances using four landscape metrics: disturbance size, disturbance elevation, average tasselled cap transformation greenness, and distance from disturbance to nearest human settlement along a road network. Results indicate that bears select for larger disturbances in all seasons. Females select for disturbances with low remotely-sensed greenness in all seasons, where males select for disturbances with low remotely-sensed greenness in the spring and fall, but high remotely-sensed greenness in the summer. Females select for disturbances at a consistent elevation, whereas males show seasonal variation. Both sexes avoid the most recent disturbances from the 2000s. Females show greater selection of disturbances in the summer and fall, whereas males select disturbances in the fall the least. Knowing that bears select for large disturbances, and females select disturbances at a consistent elevation, forest managers can limit human access to these areas in order to limit human and bear interactions and reduce mortality risk. / Graduate

A grizzly bear habitat classification was developed by modifying and expanding the climax-based Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) to accommodate serai vegetation. Locations of radio-collared bears were assigned to a large number (N=110) of structurally and floristically unique habitats. An interpretive classification of 14 Bear Habitat Units (BHUs) was derived from the taxa of the BEC system; units were amalgamated on the basis of grizzly bear habitat value and similarity of response to forest management practices. Fifteen climax forest, three subalpine, three wetland, and three avalanche chute units were identified and described in the lower Kimsquit River. Two adult female grizzly bears (numbers 08 and 25) were monitored for 1238 and 1196 days, respectively, from April 1982 to October 1985 and had multi-annual minimum convex polygon (MCP) home ranges of 85 km² (N=23 6), and 60 km² (N=241). River floodplain BHUs were used most heavily by bears 08 and 25 during their active seasons (65% of locations and 51% of time for bear 08; 75% of locations and 63% of time for bear 25) followed by avalanche chutes and sidehill climax and old-growth forests. Rank testing between quality/quantity indices (food plant nutrient content, biomass, berry abundance) and grizzly bear use indicated that movements were generally correlated with food availability at the higher, or BHU, level of the classification (rs=0.61 and 0.83, p<.05 for bears 08 and 25, respectively). Salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and insects were the only common non-plant items in a diet of over 3 0 species, although food habits differed between bears. It is concluded that, although food plays a critical role in habitat selection of coastal grizzly bears, a relatively rich environment precludes the need for individuals to forage optimally at a micro-habitat level. Except for the early spring and late fall, food can be found in a number of units that collectively meet life requisites. These analyses were used in combination with other use and habitat quality information to develop seasonal habitat values. Assigned values allowed predictions about the effects of forest management practices on habitat capability. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

In the first two centuries of European exploration of North America, accounts of monsters, including ones given by Indigenous guides, were largely accepted by Europeans as reflecting actual creatures. Gradually, under the influence of a range of factors, this dynamic shifted over time. Continued exploration, the spread of Enlightenment ideas, and changing material circumstances led to a decline in the belief in monsters—or at least put the belief in them beyond respectability, thereby enlarging the cultural gulf between various Indigenous cultures and European explorers and settlers, or at least the social elite of that latter group. In Canada, as argued here, the “sasquatch” was a hybrid creation combining Indigenous and European traditions; the windigo was an Indigenous monster tradition; the “grisly bear” was predominately a monster of the European imagination. Perceptions of each in European exploration literature followed a similar trajectory of increasing skepticism. Each evolved from creatures that were depicted as innately hostile or dangerous into somewhat more benign pop culture images as they lost their potency once the frontier receded and North America urbanized. As the gap in perspectives on monsters widened in exploration and frontier literature over the course of the nineteenth century, new narratives emerged that were much more negative in their depictions of Indigenous peoples. Frequently, this negativity, when connected with monster legends, depicted Indigenous peoples as cowardly or superstitious. With the sasquatch, European stereotypes about Indigenous people had by the 1870s partially supplanted what had once been a sense of genuine mystery regarding this frontier legend. The exploitation of windigo stories to portray Indigenous peoples as cowardly and superstitious also arose mainly after the 1870s, as earlier generations of explorers and fur traders had exhibited more receptive attitudes. Meanwhile many voyageurs and lower status trappers retained beliefs on monsters closer to their Indigenous counterparts, and as a result were often lumped into the same category as sharing premodern, superstitious beliefs by their social elites. Finally, in the third example, the “grisly bear” became a bloodthirsty monster in the European settler imagination. It was the last mainstream European monster myth, before it too largely faded away in the face of skeptical inquiry. However, such skepticism, voiced normally from afar, frequently misunderstood and misconstrued the nature of these legends, and the truths they had contained. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The niche concept provides a tractable measure of the ecological roles and requirements of organisms, which can inform our understanding of the patterns of biodiversity, and subsequently, direct conservation policy. Although niche is most commonly considered for species, variation nested within lower hierarchies of biological organization (i.e., phenotypes, genotypes) also contributes to maintaining biodiversity. Herein I examine spatial and dietary niche variation among and within species in a consumer–resource system where resources and competition are structured by a heterogeneous environment. An underlying theme of this dissertation was developing research through a community-engaged approach that not only contributed to conceptual advancements in niche theory but also to applied conservation priorities. The marine archipelago of the central coast of British Columbia, Canada structures salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) resources and the inter- and intraspecific competitive context for coastal grizzly (Ursus arctos) and black bears (Ursus americanus). This assembly of ursids represents nested levels of biological organization (i.e., species, phenotypes (white vs black-coated morphs of black bears) and genotypes (dominant homozygote black-coated black bears, heterozygote black-coated black bears, recessive homozygote white-coated ‘Spirit’ black bears)), which allows for investigation into niche variation across and within species. I investigated niche variation using a suite of non-invasive methods. Local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (LEK/TEK) provided complementary information to genetic and stable isotope (13C and 15N) data from hair samples. First, I investigated changes in the spatial niche of coastal grizzly bears. By combining western scientific approaches with TEK/LEK interviews I found the range of coastal grizzly bears has expanded westward onto several coastal islands. The economic, cultural, and ecological impacts of this shift in spatial niche are not yet understood. Second, I tested hypotheses related to variation in the foraging niche of black bears in response to the competitive environment and salmon resource availability. I found that grizzly bear presence reduced the proportion of salmon in black bear diets by ~40%. I also found that salmon species diversity, and not biomass abundance, was positively correlated to salmon in black bear diets. This highlights the importance of resource diversity to consumers beyond the consideration of abundance. Third, I explored spatial niche patterns of Spirt bears in relation to protected areas. I found that landscape-level Spirit bear allele frequency and population estimates were lower than previously reported. Approximately ~50% of Spirit bear allele hotspots corresponded to protected areas. This finding suggests Spirit bears are rarer and less protected than previously assumed. Finally, I tested hypotheses related to niche variation between phenotype and genotypes of Spirit bear populations. I found both phenotypes and genotypes diverged in foraging niche, with Spirit bears and black-coated heterozygotes having elevated stable isotope signatures compared to black-coated homozygotes. This result supports the role of ‘multi-niche’ mechanisms in maintaining this rare polymorphism. Results from all chapters contributed to land- and marine-use stewardship efforts of collaborating First Nations. Collectively, this dissertation offers novel contributions towards understanding how niche variation at multiple levels of biological organization can contribute to conservation planning. / Graduate / 2020-04-04

I identified suitable locations for highway wildlife crossing mitigations across the TransCanada Highway (TCH) in the area of Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Park (MRGNP), British Columbia. Highways fragment natural landscapes leading to habitat loss, reduced ecosystem connectivity and direct wildlife mortality though motor vehicle collisions. Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) are vulnerable to the effects of habitat and population fragmentation. Highway wildlife crossing mitigations improve ecosystem connectivity by increasing the permeability of transportation corridors to wildlife. I identified high-quality habitat patches using a resource selection function (RSF) based on 1,703 radio telemetry locations from 59 grizzly bears. Least-cost path analysis (LCP) among habitat patches identified 6 linkage zones across the TCH. Electric circuit theory was used to generate current maps that classify linkage zones as high-volume crossing areas or tenuous linkages. Linkage zones occurred where high-quality habitat aligned with physical features conducive to cross-valley wildlife dispersal.