Mapping and modeling human-black bear interactions in the Catskills region of New York using resource selection probability functions

Abstract

Black bears (Ursus americanus) are an iconic and common species throughout much of the United States and people regularly interact with these large predators without conflict. However, negative interactions between people and bears can manifest in conflicts that can hinder conservation efforts. Black bears are highly attracted to anthropogenic sources of food, and negative interactions with people are primarily a product of trash mismanagement. In the Catskills region of New York State, home to a large population of black bears, over 400 such conflicts are reported each year. While the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has seen progress recently in educating residents of the region on how to reduce unwanted interactions with bears, they have had less success educating the 12 million tourists that visit the Catskills each year. Understanding where conflict may occur in the future, and the environmental and anthropogenic factors that precede it, may help guide management strategies to reduce these unwanted interactions. Therefore, we designed resource selection probability functions (RSPFs) to examine the relationship between human-black bear conflicts in the Catskills with a suite of landscape and anthropogenic data, using conflicts reported to the DEC across the state of New York in 2018–2019. We found that human-black bear conflicts were more likely to occur in the residential areas of the Catskills on the urban-wildland interface; areas with relatively higher human population densities, away from dense forest, and further from heavily urbanized areas. While future work is needed to continuously validate our model predictions, our results will provide the DEC and other conservation managers in the Catskills the ability to create more targeted plans for mitigating unwanted human-black bear interactions, and provide a better understanding of the mechanisms driving human-carnivore interactions at an urban-wildland interface more generally.

Factors influencing frequency and severity of human-American black bear conflicts in New York, USA

“…For each recorded conflict, the NYSDEC noted the type of complaint (e.g., bird feeder interaction, vehicle break-in, structural damage, etc. ), location (i.e., Wildlife Management Unit (WMU), which is the spatial extent at which black bears are managed in New York and at which human-bear conflicts are often considered), and the severity of the conflict (denoted by classes 1 to 3 [13,35]). Based on the NYSDEC's severity classification system, Class 1 conflicts are highly severe (e.g., bear entered occupied or unoccupied homes, attacked pets or livestock, or displayed aggressive behavior toward people), Class 2 conflicts are moderately severe (e.g., human habituation and/or food conditioning), and Class 3 conflicts are mildly severe (e.g., bear feeding at a bird feeder, or raiding a dumpster or garbage can).…”

“…This was likely a consequence of abundant bear habitat interspersed with low-density human development, which creates ample opportunity for bear access to human spaces and unsecured human-derived foods within these two parks (J. Hurst, personal observation). Most conflicts with black bears involve individuals investigating or habituating to human foods and trash in areas of high human use [13,40,47]. These conflicts may cause bolder behavior toward humans, which could result in increased conflicts with…”

“…In North America, American black bears (Ursus americanus) are the bear species most commonly involved in conflicts with humans [11][12][13]. Human-bear conflicts include crop damage, livestock depredation, destruction of property, and perceived and real threats to personal safety, though most conflicts are non-life threatening to humans [11,14,15].…”

“…Drought can limit vegetation production [19][20][21], and therefore natural foods for wildlife including black bears [22,23]. Scarcity of natural foods with high caloric energy (e.g., nuts and berries) may cause bears to leave their primary habitat and use anthropogenic foods in human-dominated landscapes, which in turn can result in increased conflicts with humans [12,13,24]. Proximity of wildlands and residential food sources for bears present a risk of conflict with people [25][26][27].…”