Brown Bear Food-Probability Models in West-European Russia: On the Way to the Real Resource Selection Function

Abstract

Most habitat suitability models and resource selection functions (RSFs) use indirect variables and habitat surrogates. However, it is known that in order to adequately reflect the habitat requirements of a species, it is necessary to use proximal resource variables. Direct predictors should be used to construct a real RSF that reflects the real influence of main resources on species habitat use. In this work, we model the spatial distribution of the main food resources of brown bear Ursus arctos L. within the natural and human-modified landscapes of the Central Forest State Nature Reserve (CFNR) for further RSF construction. Food-probability models were built for Apiaceae spp. (Angelica sylvestris L., Aegopodium podagraria L., Chaerophyllum aromaticum L.), Populus tremula L., Vaccinium myrtillus L., V. microcarpum (Turcz. ex Rupr.) Schmalh., V. oxycoccos L., Corylus avellana L., Sorbus aucuparia L., Malus domestica Borkh., anthills, xylobiont insects, social wasps and Alces alces L. using the MaxEnt algorithm. For model evaluation, we used spatial block cross-validation and held apart fully independent data. The true skill statistic (TSS) estimates ranged from 0.34 to 0.95. Distribution of Apiaceae forbs was associated with areas having rich phytomass and moist conditions on southeastern slopes. Populus tremula preferred areas with phytomass abundance on elevated sites. Vaccinium myrtillus was confined to wet boreal spruce forests. V. microcarpum and V. oxycoccos were associated with raised bogs in depressions of the terrain. Corylus avellana and Sorbus aucuparia preferred mixed forests on elevated sites. Distribution of Malus domestica was associated with meadows with dry soils in places of abandoned cultural landscapes. Anthills were common on the dry soils of meadows, and the periphery of forest areas with high illumination and low percent cover of tree canopy. Moose preferred riverine flood meadows rich in herbaceous vegetation and sparse mixed forests in spring and early summer. The territory of the human-modified CFNR buffer zone was shown to contain a higher variety of food resources than the strictly protected CFNR core area.

Brown bear food habits in natural and human-modified landscapes in West-European Russia

“…Scats containing the main anthropogenic foods had larger amounts of these items in the buffer zone, where their sources were located. This is consistent with our previous results on spatial distribution models of these food resources, where bilberry was more common in the CFNR core, whereas apple trees were mostly distributed in the buffer zone (Ogurtsov et al 2022). Despite the fact that most overgrown meadows and forest glades are located in the buffer zone, we found negligible differences in the consumption of forbs or ants between this area and reserve core.…”

“…Brown bears can defecate several kilometers away from the places where they consume food (Lalleroni et al 2017), so the comparison of scat placement between the CFNR core area and its buffer zone for such a small territory (about 700 km 2 ) might include some spatial biases. However, our field observations and spatial analysis from a previous study (Ogurtsov 2018) confirm that, in many cases, bears leave scats in or near their feeding habitats.…”

“…We used the %FV proportion of food items as a response variable and seasons, area, and their interaction as independent variables. The highest diet diversity was previously found in early fall (Ogurtsov 2018), so we decided to use this season as a reference level (intercept) in our models. Then we used 'Type II' ANOVA for model production.…”