Habitat Selection of a Large Carnivore along Human-Wildlife Boundaries in a Highly Modified Landscape

When large carnivores occupy peripheral human lands conflict with humans becomes inevitable, and the reduction of human-carnivore interactions must be the first consideration for those concerned with conflict mitigation. Studies designed to identify areas of high human-bear interaction are crucial for prioritizing management actions. Due to a surge in conflicts, against a background of social intolerance to wildlife and the prevalent use of lethal control throughout Japan, Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are now threatened by high rates of mortality. There is an urgent need to reduce the frequency of human-bear encounters if bear populations are to be conserved. To this end, we estimated the habitats that relate to human-bear interactions by sex and season using resource selection functions (RSF). Significant seasonal differences in selection for and avoidance of areas by bears were estimated by distance-effect models with interaction terms of land cover and sex. Human-bear boundaries were delineated on the basis of defined bear-habitat edges in order to identify areas that are in most need of proactive management strategies. Asiatic black bears selected habitats in close proximity to forest edges, forest roads, rivers, and red pine and riparian forests during the peak conflict season and this was correctly predicted in our human-bear boundary maps. Our findings demonstrated that bears selected abandoned forests and agricultural lands, indicating that it should be possible to reduce animal use near human lands by restoring season-specific habitat in relatively remote areas. Habitat-based conflict mitigation may therefore provide a practical means of creating adequate separation between humans and these large carnivores.当大型食肉动物栖息于人类活动周边区域时，与人的冲突便难以避免，因此减少人兽互动必须成为冲突缓解相关工作的首要考量。旨在识别高频人熊互动区域的研究，对于优先制定管理干预措施至关重要。鉴于人熊冲突数量激增，叠加日本国内民众对野生动物的社会容忍度偏低、且普遍采用致命性防控手段的背景，亚洲黑熊（Ursus thibetanus）正面临高死亡率的生存威胁。若要保护黑熊种群，亟需降低人熊偶遇的发生频次。为此，我们借助资源选择函数（resource selection functions, RSF），按性别与季节估算了与人熊互动相关的栖息地。通过构建纳入土地覆盖类型与性别交互项的距离效应模型，我们估算出黑熊对栖息地的选择与规避行为存在显著的季节差异。我们基于明确划定的熊栖息地边缘界定了人熊边界，以此识别最需实施主动管理策略的区域。在冲突高发季，亚洲黑熊会偏好靠近林缘、林间道路、河流、红松林与河岸林的栖息地，这一结论在我们绘制的人熊边界地图中得到了准确验证。研究结果表明，黑熊会选择废弃林地与农业用地作为栖息区域，这意味着通过在相对偏远的区域修复适配特定季节的栖息地，便可减少食肉动物进入人类活动区域的概率。因此，基于栖息地的冲突缓解手段，或可为人类与这类大型食肉动物建立足够的空间分隔提供切实可行的解决方案。