Abstract 344 – Space use of brown bears across Europe’s human dominated landscape: Insights from a multi-population study

Anne G. Hertel, Aida Parres, Shane C. Frank, Julien Renaud, Nuria Selva, Andreas
Zedrosser, Niko Balkenhol, Luigi Maiorano, Ancuta Fedorca, Trishna Dutta, Neda
Bogdanović, Silviu Chiriac, Duško Ćirović, Paolo Ciucci, Csaba Domokos, Mihai Fedorca, Stefano
Filacorda, Claudio Groff, Miguel de Gabriel Hernando, Djuro Huber, Georgeta Ionescu, Klemen
Jerina, Alexandros A. Karamanlidis, Jonas Kindberg, Ilpo Kojola, Yorgos Mertzanis, Santiago
Palazon, Mihai I. Pop, Maria Psaralexi, Pierre Yves Quenette, Agnieszka Sergiel, Michaela
Skuban, Diana Zlatanova, Tomasz Zwijacz-Kozica, Marta De Barba

Species often occupy wide-geographical ranges with contrasting environmental conditions that
shape intraspecific variation in space use. Three-quarters of the planet's land surface have been
altered by humans with consequences for animal movement and related ecosystem
functioning. Yet, limited data availability across species' ranges has constrained our
understanding of intraspecific movement variation in highly anthropized landscapes. Leveraging
a unique dataset of 751 brown bear (Ursus arctos) GPS-movement trajectories that included
almost the entire geographical range of this species in Europe, we investigated intraspecific
variation in space use along a gradient of human impact and resource availability. We
quantified individual space use at different temporal scales, from home range sizes to 10-day
and 1-day displacement distances. We found large intraspecific variation in space use across all
temporal scales, with males roaming farther than females. This variation was profoundly
affected by human activity (i.e., human footprint index) and resource availability (i.e., annual
vegetation productivity and forest disturbances). Bears occupied smaller home ranges and
moved less in more anthropized landscapes and in areas of higher resource availability. Bear
home ranges overlapped little with protected areas, e.g., only 8 bears had their entire home
ranges within protected areas, demonstrating that protected areas in Europe are too small to
sustain brown bear populations. On a population level, bears from the Carpathian, Dinaric
Pindos, and Eastern Balkan moved most, followed by bears from Fennoscandia, while bears
from the Alpine and Apennine moved most. Restricted bear movements in areas of high human
footprint hinders connectivity among some populations in south-central Europe which are close
in proximity. In areas of high human footprint, such as the Italian Alps or Serbia, establishing
and maintaining movement corridors is essential to promote connectivity.