Dining from the coast to the summit: Salmon and pine nuts determine the summer body condition of female brown bears on the Shiretoko Peninsula

Shirane, Yuri; Jimbo, Mina; Yamanaka, Masami; Nakanishi, Masanao; Mori, Fumihiko; Ishinazaka, Tsuyoshi; Sashika, Mariko; Tsubota, Toshio; Shimozuru, Michito

doi:10.1002/ece3.7410

Cited by 17 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…and fruits (cherry, Prunus sargentii ; wild vine, Vitis coignetiae , etc.) are abundant, and bears can consume these plant materials from spring to autumn (Shirane et al, 2021). On the other hand, the Rausu area is dominated by deciduous single‐layered forests with short trees and relatively rich forest floor vegetation ( Betula ermanii and Sasa sp.–B.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rivers and the predicted spawning areas of pink salmon based on elevation, slope, and location of artificial structures are shown in Figure 1. Both salmon and pine nuts are known to be important foods for brown bears inhabiting the Shiretoko Peninsula (Shirane et al, 2021); therefore, we divided the study site into five areas in terms of accessibility to salmon spawning rivers and the stone pine zone for bears (Figure 1). The tip SNP area is the area where brown bears can most easily consume both salmon and pine nuts because the distance between the salmon spawning river and the stone pine zone is small and the area experiences minimal human disturbance.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also collected 33 potential food items of brown bears inhabiting the Shiretoko Peninsula according to a list developed based on previous studies (Ohdachi & Aoi, 1987;Sato et al, 2004;Shirane et al, 2021) and information from local wildlife experts. As suggested by Phillips et al (2005Phillips et al ( , 2014, we used the ecology of bear foraging to a priori aggregate potential food items into the following five food categories: alpine plants (pine nuts and wild berries), plants (e.g., herbaceous plants, fruits, and acorns), dent corn (Zea mays), terrestrial animals (insects and sika deer), and marine animals.…”

Section: Potential Food Itemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diet selection and asocial learning: Natal habitat influence on lifelong foraging strategies in solitary large mammals

et al. 2022

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Exploring the process of diet selection will contribute to improvement in our understanding of animal foraging strategies. The overwhelming majority of ecological research on animal learning and foraging concentrates on how social learning influences the feeding styles of animals living in groups. In solitary animals that live long after independence from their mothers, foraging experience after independence is expected to have a significant influence on diet selection, but few studies have addressed this point. We used brown bears (Ursus arctos), which spend 1–2 years with their mothers before foraging alone, as a model species and investigated how their diet changed later in life. We estimated the diets of bears at the individual level by using stable isotope analysis of guard hairs and examined the factors that drove dietary variation. We also quantified the extent to which the diets of bears shifted by comparing the diets of bears at the time of capture with the average diet in their natal habitat. Our results indicated that females retained the average diet of their natal habitat, whereas the diets of males significantly changed more than 6 years after becoming independent from their mothers, when they reached physical maturity. Males were dependent on energy‐rich marine animals at older ages regardless of their natal habitats, which we attribute to several factors, including habitat exploration, acquisition of foraging experience, and social dominance. Our results provide the first evidence, suggesting that foraging experience after independence influences diet selection later in life in solitary large mammals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Food Itemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diet selection and asocial learning: Natal habitat influence on lifelong foraging strategies in solitary large mammals

et al. 2022

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“…Yet, we suggest that investigating the changes in salmon numbers or annual catches of salmonids would contribute to better understanding of the role of salmonids in bear seasonal diet in the coastal Far East, as has been conducted in Japan (Shirane et al . 2021), and how varying salmon abundance may potentially result in more frequent conflicts with people.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brown bear‐caused human injuries and fatalities in Russia are linked to human encroachment

Kudrenko

Ordiz

Stytsenko

et al. 2021

Animal Conservation

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Threat to human safety is the most dramatic conflict between humans and large carnivores. Although carnivore attacks are generally rare, bears are relatively often involved. Here, we reveal an association between human encroachment into the landscape, that is, increasing road density, and brown bear-caused human casualties (injuries and fatalities) in Russia. In European Russia, the frequency of casualties correlated positively with bear population size and negatively with the presence of Siberian pine, a crucial bear food in the predenning period and a commonly gathered human resource. In Siberia, however, the number of casualties was not related to the number of bears, but it was positively associated with both road density and the presence of Siberian pine. Increasing casualties there were seemingly linked to increasing access to areas where both humans and bears concentrated simultaneously to harvest the same resource, edible pine seeds. The latter are more often collected commercially in Siberia than in European Russia. Our study shows the link between habitat degradation and human-wildlife conflict. Indeed, interacting effects of habitat change and coexistence with large carnivores deserve further attention, as we illustrate here for Russian forests; a wide boreal ecosystem where human encroachment can have severe repercussions for wildlife and ecosystem functioning at multiple spatial levels.

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“…The brown bear Ursus arctos , which is one of the most widespread large carnivores in the northern hemisphere, consumes a wide variety of foods from plants to animals (Mattson et al 1991a, Sato et al 2005, Shirane et al 2021). Canopy and understory vegetation provide bears with foods such as herbs, nuts and berries (Nielsen et al 2004, Martin et al 2010, McClelland et al 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Disentangling the direct and indirect effects of canopy and understory vegetation on the foraging habitat selection of the brown bear Ursus arctos

Tomita

Hiura

2021

Wildlife Biology

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Dining from the coast to the summit: Salmon and pine nuts determine the summer body condition of female brown bears on the Shiretoko Peninsula

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 17 publications

References 96 publications

Diet selection and asocial learning: Natal habitat influence on lifelong foraging strategies in solitary large mammals

Diet selection and asocial learning: Natal habitat influence on lifelong foraging strategies in solitary large mammals

Brown bear‐caused human injuries and fatalities in Russia are linked to human encroachment

Disentangling the direct and indirect effects of canopy and understory vegetation on the foraging habitat selection of the brown bear Ursus arctos

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