Spatially explicit genetic capture-recapture data from black bears in Ontario, Canada

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources samples black bear (Ursus americanus) DNA at baited barbed wire hair corrals on multiple independent study areas in Ontario, Canada, annually since 2017 (except in 2020 and 2021). Spatially explicit capture-recapture data from surveys conducted since 2017 are archived here. This data set will be cited in manuscripts presenting analyses of the entire data set or subsets thereof., The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources sampled black bear DNA at baited barbed wire hair corrals on multiple independent study areas in Ontario, Canada, annually since 2017. Wire height (~50 cm) was intended to exclude dependent offspring (bears aged 0 and 1 years) from the sample. Sampling took place over 5 weekly sampling occasions in spring and early summer (except that sampling on ShirleyLakeRd in 2019 was extended by two weeks for a total of 7 occasions). Individuals and their sex were identified from microsatellite genotypes to 15 loci to generate encounter histories., \"StudyAreas.csv\" lists the study area-specific files with trap locations (\"traps_...csv\") and bear encounter histories (\"caps_...txt\") and summarizes data collection results.Also provided in this file are the year of sampling, the forest region sampled (boreal or Great Lakes St. Lawrence [\"GLSL\"; Rowe 1972]), and the Wildlife Landscape Zone (WLZ) i.e. management zone sampled.
\"traps...csv\" files provide numeric labels (detectorID) and x- and y-coordinates of barbed wire hair corrals on each study area. Coordinate units are UTMs (datum = NAD83; longitude zone included in the filename at end after \"Z\")Wherever temporal sampling effort varied among sampling occasions, week-specific sampling effort in days is provided as additional columns in traps files. These additional colums are usually recognized by the 'secr' R package and included as 'usage' information when traps and capthist objects are created. 
\"caps....txt\" files are individual-specific encounter histories. Columns are (1) \"sess..., # Spatially explicit genetic capture-recapture data from black bears in Ontario, Canada

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7wm37pvtz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7wm37pvtz)

## Description of the data and file structure

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources sampled black bear DNA at baited barbed wire hair corrals on multiple independent study areas in Ontario, Canada, annually starting in 2017. No sampling was conducted in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID-19.  Wire height (~50 cm) was intended to exclude dependent offspring (bears aged 0 and 1 years) from the sample. Sampling took place over 5 weekly sampling occasions in spring and early summer (except that sampling on ShirleyLakeRd in 2019 was extended by two weeks for a total of 7 occasions). Individuals and their sex were identified from microsatellite genotypes to 15 loci to generate encounter histories.

\"StudyAreas.csv\" lists the study area-specific files with trap locations (\"traps_...csv\") and bear encounter histories (\"caps_...t...