Data from: Behavioural responses of brown bears to roads and hunting disturbance

Harvest regulations commonly attenuate the consequences of hunting on specific segments of a population. However, regulations may not protect individuals from non-lethal effects of hunting and their consequences remain poorly understood. In this study, we compared the movement rates of Scandinavian brown bears (Ursus arctos, n = 47) across spatiotemporal variations in risk in relation to the onset of bear hunting. We tested two alternative hypotheses based on whether behavioural responses to hunting involve hiding or escaping. If bears try to reduce risk exposure by avoiding being detected by hunters, we expect individuals from all demographic groups to reduce their movement rate during the hunting season. On the other hand, if bear avoid hunters by escaping, we expect them to increase their movement rate in order to leave high-risk areas faster. We found an increased movement rate in females accompanied by dependent offspring during the morning hours of the bear hunting season, a general decrease in movement rate in adult lone females, and no changes in males and subadult females. The increased movement rate that we observed in females with dependant offspring during the hunting season was likely an antipredator response because it only occurred in areas located closer to roads, whereas the decreased movement rate in lone females could be either part of a seasonal activity patterns or be associated with an increased selection for better concealment. Our study suggests that female brown bears accompanied by offspring likely move faster in high-risk areas to minimize risk exposure as well as the costly trade-offs (i.e., time spent foraging versus time spent hiding) typically associated with anti-predator tactics that involve changes in resource selection. Our study also highlights the importance of modeling fine-scale spatiotemporal variations in risk to adequately capture the complexity in behavioural responses caused by human activities in wildlife.狩猎法规通常会减轻狩猎对种群特定类群的影响。然而，此类法规或无法保护个体免受狩猎带来的非致命性影响，且这类影响的后果迄今仍未被充分阐明。本研究针对棕熊狩猎季启动前后的风险时空变异，对比了斯堪的纳维亚棕熊（Ursus arctos，n=47）的移动速率。我们基于棕熊对狩猎的行为响应是采取隐蔽还是逃逸两种对立假说开展检验：若棕熊试图通过避免被猎人发现以降低风险暴露，则所有种群统计类群的个体在狩猎季的移动速率均应降低；反之，若棕熊通过逃逸躲避猎人，则其移动速率应提升，以便更快脱离高风险区域。研究结果显示：在棕熊狩猎季的清晨时段，携带幼崽的雌性个体移动速率有所上升；成年独居雌性的移动速率整体呈下降趋势；而雄性与亚成体雌性的移动速率未发生显著变化。我们观测到的带崽雌性在狩猎季的移动速率提升现象，大概率属于反捕食响应——该现象仅发生在临近道路的区域；而独居雌性的移动速率下降，既可能是季节性活动模式的组成部分，也可能与个体对更佳隐蔽生境的选择偏好增强有关。本研究表明，带崽雌性棕熊在高风险区域加快移动速率，既可最大限度降低风险暴露，也能规避与涉及资源选择改变的反捕食策略相关的典型代价权衡（即觅食时间与隐蔽时间的分配矛盾）。此外，本研究还凸显了对风险开展精细时空尺度建模的重要性，以此充分捕捉人类活动对野生动物行为响应造成的复杂性。