Black Bear Home Range Overlap in North Carolina and the Concept of Home Range Applied to Black Bears
Powell RA. 1987. Black Bear Home Range Overlap in North Carolina and the Concept of Home Range Applied to Black Bears. Bears: Their Biology and Management. 7:235-242
This report concerns bears of the Pisgah Black Bear Sanctuary in western North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along an adjacent ridge and is considered as part of the sanctuary since no hunting is allowed on Parkway land. The study relates home range to habitat productivity. With home range maps. Theoretical and empirical research indicates that territoriality is related to habitat productivity. Female black bears (Ursus americanus) exhibit intrasexual territoriality in northern North America where habitat productivity is low. However, telemetry studies show that adult female black bears in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, where productivity is higher, exhibit considerable home range overlap. This overlap was quantified using an index that weighs home range overlap by the extent that 2 bears share parts of their home ranges. Home range of adult females overlapped extensively during each year and season. Females who reached sexual maturity established home ranges close to their mothers or took over their mothers' home ranges if their mothers had died. The importance of sample size and statistical and biological independence of bear locations to home range analysis is unclear.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Powell, Roger
- Units
- BLRI
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Black Bear (Ursus americanus), Mount Pisgah (BLRI), Range, Section 2-T Blue Ridge Parkway