Abstract 257 - Coexistence at the top of the food chain: anthropogenic risk primarily drives brown bear space use and resource selection in the Italian Alps
Andrea Corradini, Fondazione Edmund MachSalon 8/9
Andrea Corradini, Benjamin Robira, Luca Pedrotti, Clara Tattoni, Natalia Bragalanti,
Claudio Groff, Marco Ciolli, Francesca Cagnacci
The Italian Alps are among the most anthropized mountain areas in the world. In a multi-use
landscape where a variety of activities such as farming, livestock herding, hunting, and outdoor
recreation take place, large mammals must adjust their behavior to carry out their daily
activities. The brown bear, the largest carnivore in the Alps, was recently rescued from near
extinction and must now find its place in a complex, human-dominated landscape. In this study,
we use individual-based movement, activity and trait information (spanning from 2006 to 2019)
to assess multi-scale behavioral decisions related to the perception of risk, the availability of
habitat, and the proximity of food resources. Perceived risk from human activities was found to
influence spatial and temporal patterns of selection across scales more than other attributes.
Spatially, brown bears reduced risk exposure when selecting for home ranges and resources
within those ranges by avoiding humans, at the cost of limiting their selection of high-quality
habitats and high-calorie food sources. Temporally, intraspecific competition was identified as
the main determinant of activity patterns and daily movement length over the years, while
human disturbance had a major effect on movement behavior on a daily (day vs. night) scale.
Brown bears in the Alps are slowly recovering, but competition for space with humans, lack of
habitat connectivity, and human-caused mortality are hindering their recovery and the
formation of a viable metapopulation throughout the Alps. In the increasingly crowded Alps,
sustainable long-term coexistence can be achieved only if both bears and humans adjust their
behaviors.
