Individual and population fitness consequences associated with large carnivore use of residential development

Large carnivores are negotiating increasingly developed landscapes, but little is known about how such behavioral plasticity influences their demographic rates and population trends. Some investigators have suggested that the ability of carnivores to behaviorally adapt to human development will enable their persistence, and yet, others have suggested that such landscapes are likely to serve as population sinks or ecological traps. To understand how plasticity in black bear (Ursus americanus) use of residential development influences their population dynamics, we conducted a 6 year study near Durango, Colorado, USA. Using space-use data on individual bears, we examined the influence of use of residential development on annual measures of bear body fat, cub productivity, cub survival and adult female survival, after accounting for variation in natural food availability and individual attributes (e.g., age). We then used our field-based vital rate estimates to parameterize a matrix model t...

大型食肉动物正日益周旋于愈发开发的景观之中，但目前学界对这类行为可塑性如何影响其种群统计率与种群动态趋势仍知之甚少。部分研究者提出，食肉动物适应人类开发区域的行为能力可助力其存续；但另有学者认为，这类开发景观或会成为种群汇（population sink）或生态陷阱（ecological traps）。为探明美洲黑熊（Ursus americanus）对住宅开发区域的利用行为可塑性如何影响其种群动态，我们于美国科罗拉多州杜兰戈附近开展了一项为期6年的研究。我们借助个体黑熊的空间利用数据，在控制天然食物可获得性与个体特征（如年龄）等变量的影响后，分析了住宅开发区域利用行为对黑熊体脂、幼崽繁殖率、幼崽存活率以及成年雌性存活率等年度指标的影响。随后我们基于野外获取的生命率（vital rate）估算值，为矩阵模型（matrix model）进行参数化设置……