Mortality Risk Modeling

What are they?: Movement Corridor Models predict where

grizzly bears will travel on the landscape to get from one high

use area to another. How are they created?: Grizzly bear location data, RSF

results, and graph theory are used to predict where a

movement corridor is likely to occur.

Foothills Research Institute’s GRIZZLY BEAR PROJECT

Movement Corridor

Modeling What are they?: Mortality Risk Models predict where

on the landscape grizzly bears

are most likely to die.

How can this information be used?:

Corridors important for maintaining

connections between grizzly bear high

use areas are revealed. High use

areas at risk of becoming isolated are highlighted. Efforts to

preserve these important movement corridors can be made.

Corridor Modeling led by Barb Schwab and Dr. Barry Boot

(Wilfred Laurier University)

Modeling led by Dr.

Scott Nielsen (U of

Alberta)

How are they created?:

Using our RSF models and grizzly

bear mortality locations, we are

able to predict (model) where on

the landscape grizzly bear

mortalities are likely to occur.

Most grizzly bears are killed

within 100m of a road.

DNA Population Censuses Why is this necessary?: Wildlife managers need accurate population size

estimates to determine proper management actions. Each census will provide

a population size estimate for one population unit for that year. Several years

later the census is planned to be repeated in the same unit again. With these data,

we will be able to determine whether grizzly bear numbers in that population unit

are increasing, decreasing or are stable.

How?: Hair snare sites using barbed wire to snag hair

and smelly liquid bait to attract bears into the site will

be used to obtain hair samples. DNA will be used to

identify individual bears. Population size will be

estimated based on mark/recapture statistics.

Grizzly Bear Health

How?: 1) Develop a method to determine the health of grizzly bears. Blood, skin, hair and physical

measurements taken from bears captured for collaring purposes since 1999 were analyzed and

provided more than 100 measures of health. These data were combined into several “health function

scores” that corresponded to different biological functions (e.g. growth, immunity, and reproduction)

Area Population Confidence

Sampled Estimate Interval

Yellow 42 36-55

Purple 46 41-52

Blue 90 75-116

Pink 52 38-87

Red TBA

DNA Censuses led by the Foothills Research Institute and funded by ASRD

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Grizzly Bear DNA Census Boundaries

Based on Grizzly Bear Population Units

Mortality Risk Map

Relatively few bears

were found in the

roaded portion of the

census areas.

Results to Date*:

Height of blue lines is

proportional to

number of GB hits at

DNA bait sites

DNA census hits, 2004-2005, looking west

Why?: When “stressed” for weeks, months, or years an animal may lose the capacity to sustain biological

functions at normal levels and gradually develop signs of impaired health (or distress) including reduced

growth, reproduction and immune function. For distressed bears, we want to determine the cause of their

stress so that appropriate actions can be taken.

Results to date: Preliminary results suggest that the suite of hormones and proteins obtained from blood, skin and hair

and the health function scores we developed is a useful way of assessing the health of grizzly bears and possibly other

species at risk. We are currently examining the health results with landscape variables (road density, forest age,

fragmentation etc.) to determine if a correlation between “stressed” bears and the landscape exists. Health Research led by Dr. Marc Cattet (Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre), Dr. David Janz (U of Saskatchewan) and Dr.

Matt Vijayan (U of Waterloo)

and together provided a health profile for individual bears. 2) Examine health results in conjunction with landscape features

of where each bear lived to determine if any relationships exits between stressed bears and the landscape. 3) Investigate

ways to remotely obtain hair and skin samples from grizzly bears without having to capture them to allow us to assess the

health of grizzly bears in a less invasive way.

*Further information at www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlife/wildlifeinalberta/grizzlybearmanagement