Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Population Monitoring Annual Report - 2016
Costello CM and Roberts LL. 2017. Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Population Monitoring Annual Report - 2016. Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Monitoring. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks; Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Monitoring Team. Kalispell MT
Reports on annual population trend monitoring within the Northern Rockies, including Glacier National Park. A program to monitor the population trend of grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) of Montana was initiated in 2004. The goal of this program is to estimate population trend by monitoring the survival and reproductive rates of radio-marked female grizzly bears. During 2016, we captured 22 grizzly bears (13F, 9M) for trend monitoring. An additional 41 bears (18F, 22M, 1U) were captured for management or other purposes. Seventy-three bears (49F, 24M) were radio-monitored. We documented the deaths of 7 bears (5F, 2M) among the radio-monitored sample. Reproductive status was documented for 43 radio-marked adult females. Survival of accompanying dependent offspring (<2 years old) was monitored for 17 of these adult females. We did not document any mortalities among 5 cub litters. We documented 7 known or presumed mortalities and the early independence of 2 individuals among 11 yearling litters. Within the NCDE, 22 known or probable mortalities of grizzly bears were documented (including unmarked bears). This included 9 independent (≥2 years old) females and 4 independent males that died within the Demographic Monitoring Area (DMA). Based on data from these mortalities, we estimated total reported and unreported mortalities for independent grizzly bears within the DMA to be 22 bears (17F, 5M). During 2016, we verified presence of reproductive females within 14 of 23 BMUs inside the Primary Conservation Area (61%) and within 6 of 7 supplementary BMUs in Zone 1 (86%). Using a 6-year tally for 2011–2016, all BMUs within the DMA were occupied by females with offspring.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Costello, Cecily; Roberts, Lori
- Date of Issue
- 2017
- Publisher
- Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks; Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Monitoring Team
- Units
- CRCO , GLAC
- Keywords
- crown of the continent, Grizzly Bear, northern continental divide ecosystem, Population Monitoring, Population Trend, Ursos arctos, Wildlife Studies