I conducted research on the demography of a harvested north Idaho black bear (Ursus americanus) population to determine the underlying dynamics of changes in population abundance, to determine how much these dynamics were driven by variation in food productivity, and to evaluate how these processes could influence inferences based on mark-recapture analysis. In cooperation with Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the USDA Forest Service, I used barb-wire corrals to collect black bear DNA during 2003-2006 in the Purcell Mountains of Idaho. We analyzed these DNA samples to determine the number of uniquely identified individuals in each year, Nu. I used a combination of both genetic and mark-recapture analyses to evaluate the sources of variation in Nu over the four years and to what extent this variation was driven by changes in productivity of foods on the landscape. Specifically, I investigated deviations of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and genetic substructure in relation to changes in abundance, and whether variation in vital rates were a function of changing berry productivity in the study area. I found a heterozygote deficiency and detected genetic substructure indicating I sampled ≤ 4 subpopulations within the same area over the four years (a Wahlund Effect). My mark-recapture analyses suggest this pattern was probably in response to landscape changes in summer berry abundance. My results suggest important variation in population dynamics driven by changes in food productivity, which should be considered when using mark-recapture analyses to monitor population trends for black bears.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-06112009-182902 |
| Date | 15 June 2009 |
| Creators | McCall, Barbara |
| Contributors | Scott Mills, Kerry Foresman, Mike Mitchell, Mike Schwartz, Pete Zager |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-06112009-182902/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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