Abstract 317 – Bearing with it: impacts of human activities on American black bear space use and home range size in southeastern Oklahoma’s recolonizing population

Courtney Dotterweich and W. Sue Fairbanks

Once extirpated from eastern Oklahoma due to extensive overharvest and habitat loss,
American black 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 movement. Understanding
this, the objective of this study is to identify the human, landcover, and temporal factors that
influence bear home range size and resource selection to better determine how these variables
influence recolonization in this region. We will utilize GPS data collected from 84 individual
female black bears from 2014 – 2023 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 autocorrelated kernel density estimates (AKDE) to estimate home
range size indicated black bear home ranges varied widely within the study area and were
influenced by reproductive status, season, and contiguous forest cover. Future work will use
resource selection functions under a use versus availability design to identify whether bears
spatially or temporally avoid areas of human activity. This research can provide insights into the
recolonization potential for bears in this region, as well as identify the current impacts humans
have on this population.