Data from: Ecology of fear alters behaviour of grizzly bears exposed to bear-viewing ecotourism

Humans are perceived as predators by many species and may generate
landscapes of fear, influencing the spatiotemporal activity of wildlife.
Additionally, wildlife might seek out human activity when faced with
predation risks (human shield hypothesis). We used the Anthropause, a
decrease in human activity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, to test
the ecology of fear and human shield hypotheses and quantify the effects
of bear-viewing ecotourism on grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) activity. We
deployed camera traps in the Khutze watershed in Kitasoo Xai’xais
Territory in the absence of humans in 2020 and with experimental
treatments of variable human activity when ecotourism resumed in 2021.
Daily bear detection rates decreased with more people present and
increased with days since people were present. Human activity was also
associated with more bear detections at forested sheltered sites, and less
at exposed sites, likely due to the influence of habitat on bear
perception of safety. The number of people negatively influenced adult
male detection rates, but we found no influence on females with young
detections, providing no evidence that females responded behaviourally to
a human shield effect from reduced male activity. We also observed
apparent trade-offs of risk avoidance and foraging. When salmon levels
were moderate to high, detected bears were more likely to be females with
young than adult males on days with more people present. Should managers
want to minimize human impacts on bear activity and maintain baseline
age-sex class composition at ecotourism sites, multi-day closures and
daily occupancy limits may be effective. More broadly, this work revealed
that antipredator responses can vary with the intensity of risk cues,
habitat structure, and forage trade-offs, as well as manifest as the
altered age-sex class composition of individuals using human-influenced
areas, highlighting that wildlife avoids people across multiple
spatiotemporal scales.