Browsing USN Open Archive by Author "Steyaert, Sam"
Now showing items 1-20 of 20
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A "clearcut" case? Brown bear selection of coarse woody debris and carpenter ants on clearcuts
Frank, Shane C.; Steyaert, Sam; Swenson, Jon; Storch, Ilse; Kindberg, Jonas; Barck, Hanna; Zedrosser, Andreas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2015-07-05)Forest management alters habitat characteristics, resulting in various effects among and within species. It is crucial to understand how habitat alteration through forest management (e.g. clearcutting) affects animal ... -
A human-induced landscape of fear influences foraging behavior of brown bears
Lodberg-Holm, Hanna Kavli; Gelink, Henriette Wathne; Hertel, Anne Gabriela; Swenson, Jon; Domevscik, Matej; Steyaert, Sam (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2018)Animals adapt their foraging behavior to variations in food availability and predation risk. In Sweden, brown bears (Ursus arctos) depend on a nearly continuous intake of berries, especially bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) ... -
Bears and berries: species-specific selective foraging on a patchily distributed food resource in a human-altered landscape
Hertel, Anne Gabriela; Steyaert, Sam; Zedrosser, Andreas; Mysterud, Atle; Lodberg-Holm, Hanna Kavli; Gelink, Henriette Wathne; Kindberg, Jonas; Swenson, Jon (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2016)When animals are faced with extraordinary energyconsuming events, like hibernation, finding abundant, energy-rich food resources becomes particularly important. The profitability of food resources can vary spatially, ... -
Beaver (Castor fiber) activity and spatial movement in response to light and weather conditions
Cabre, L. B.; Mayer, M.; Steyaert, Sam; Rosell, Frank (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2020)Animal behaviour can affect individual fitness and is influenced by exogenous and endogenous factors. Here, we investigated how light (daylight length and moonlight), weather (precipitation and temperature), age, sex and ... -
Behavioral correlates of supplementary feeding of wildlife: Can general conclusions be drawn?
Steyaert, Sam; Kindberg, Jonas; Jerina, Klemen; Krofel, Miha; Stergar, Matija; Swenson, Jon; Zedrosser, Andreas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2014-10-12)Supplementary feeding is a common, but controversial, tool in wildlife management, because it can benefit both humans and wildlife (e.g., increased wildlife densities), but has certain downsides (e.g., increased disease ... -
Caught in the mesh : roads and their network-scale impediment to animal movement
Bischof, Richard; Steyaert, Sam; Kindberg, Jonas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2017)Roads have a pervasive multi-faceted influence on ecosystems, including pronounced impacts on wildlife movements. In recognition of the scale-transcending impacts of transportation infrastructure, ecologists have been ... -
Directed endozoochorous dispersal by scavengers facilitate sexual reproduction in otherwise clonal plants at cadaver sites
Arnberg, Mie Prik; Frank, Shane; Blaalid, Rakel; Davey, Marie Louise; Eycott, Amy Elizabeth; Steyaert, Sam (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2022)1. The regeneration niche of many plant species involves spatially and temporally unpredictable disturbances, called recruitment windows of opportunity. However, even species with clear dispersal adaptations such as fleshy ... -
Do ingredient and nutrient intake reveal individual dietary specialization in an omnivorous carnivore, the brown bear?
De Cuyper, Annelies; Strubbe, Diederik; Clauss, Marcus; Lens, Luc; Zedrosser, Andreas; Steyaert, Sam; Kopatz, Alexander; Janssens, Geert P. J. (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2024)Generalist populations often harbor individual dietary specialists. Whether using a narrower set of resources than the population (= specialization) affects specialists' nutrient intake remains underexplored. We evaluated ... -
Ecological implications from spatial patterns in human-caused brown bear mortality
Steyaert, Sam; Zedrosser, Andreas; Elfström, Marcus; Ordiz Fernandez, Andres Avelino; Leclerc, Martin; Frank, Shane C.; Kindberg, Jonas; Støen, Ole-Gunnar; Brunberg, Sven; Swenson, Jon (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2016)Humans are important agents of wildlife mortality, and understanding such mortality is paramount for effective population management and conservation. However, the spatial mechanisms behind wildlife mortality are often ... -
Faecal spectroscopy: a practical tool to assess diet quality in an opportunistic omnivore
Steyaert, Sam; Hütter, Franziska J.; Elfström, Marcus; Zedrosser, Andreas; Hackländer, Klaus; Le, Minh Hung; Windisch, Wilhelm M.; Swenson, Jon; Isaksson, Tomas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2012)Faecal indices of dietary quality can provide useful knowledge about the general ecology of a species, but only if the measurements are accurate and the results are interpreted with caution. In this article, we evaluated ... -
Fear the reaper: ungulate carcasses may generate an ephemeral landscape of fear for rodents
Frank, Shane C.; Blaalid, Rakel; Mayer, Martin; Zedrosser, Andreas; Steyaert, Sam (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2020)Animal carcasses provide an ephemeral pulse of nutrients for scavengers that use them. Carcass sites can increase species interactions and/or ephemeral, localized landscapes of fear for prey within the vicinity. Few studies ... -
Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)
Rivrud, Inger Maren; Frank, Shane C.; Bischof, Richard; Mysterud, Atle; Steyaert, Sam; Hertel, Anne Gabriela; Hagen, Snorre; Eiken, Hans Geir; Swenson, Jon; Zedrosser, Andreas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2019)Wild animal populations experience selection pressures from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The availability of extensive pedigrees is increasing along with our ability to quantify the heritability and evolvability ... -
Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
Gosselin, Jacinthe; Leclerc, Martin; Zedrosser, Andreas; Steyaert, Sam; Swenson, Jon; Pelletier, Fanie (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2017)The removal of individuals through hunting can destabilize social structure, potentially affecting population dynamics. Although previous studies have shown that hunting can indirectly reduce juvenile survival through ... -
Infanticide as a male reproductive strategy has a nutritive risk effect in brown bears
Steyaert, Sam; Reusch, Christine; Brunberg, Sven; Swenson, Jon; Hackländer, Klaus; Zedrosser, Andreas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2013-10-02)Behavioural strategies to reduce predation risk can incur costs, which are often referred to as risk effects. A common strategy to avoid predation is spatio-temporal avoidance of predators, in which prey typically trade ... -
Litter loss triggers estrus in a nonsocial seasonal breeder
Steyaert, Sam; Swenson, Jon; Zedrosser, Andreas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2014)Sexually selected infanticide (SSI) is often presumed to be rare among seasonal breeders, because it would require a near immediate return to estrus after the loss of an entire litter during the mating season. We evaluated ... -
Reindeer carcasses provide foraging habitat for insectivorous birds of the alpine tundra
Badia, Rudy; Steyaert, Sam; Puliti, Stefano; Blaalid, Rakel; Frank, Shane C. (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2019)On August of 2016, almost an entire herd (n = 323) of wild tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) was killed by lightning on Hardangervidda in southern Norway. While conducting fieldwork for another study in 2017, we ... -
Seasonal and annual variation in the diet of brown bears Ursus arctos in the boreal forest of southcentral Sweden
Stenset, Nina Emilie; Lutnæs, Paul Antoni Nilsen; Bjarnadóttir, Valgerður; Dahle, Bjørn Steinar; Fossum, Kristin Høivik; Jigsved, Patrick; Johansen, Thomas; Neumann, Wiebke; Opseth, Ole; Rønning, Oddmund; Steyaert, Sam; Zedrosser, Andreas; Brunberg, Sven; Swenson, Jon (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2016)Understanding a species' feeding ecology is essential for successful management and conservation, because food abundance can influence body mass, survival, reproductive success, movements, and habitat use. We describe ... -
Size is not everything: differing activity and foraging patterns between the sexes in a monomorphic mammal
Lodberg-Holm, Hanna Kavli; Steyaert, Sam; Reinhardt, Stefanie; Rosell, Frank Narve (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2021)Animals balance foraging with other activities, and activity patterns may differ between sexes due to differing physical requirements and reproductive investments. Sex-specific behavioural differences are common in sexually ... -
Socio-ecological features other than sex affect habitat selection in the socially obligate monogamous Eurasian beaver
Steyaert, Sam; Zedrosser, Andreas; Rosell, Frank (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2015-08-11)Habitat selection is a context-dependent mechanism, in which both the internal state as well as external factors affect the behavior and decisions of an individual. This is well known for polygamous mammals, which are ... -
Temporal effects of hunting on foraging behavior of an apex predator: Do bears forego foraging when risk is high?
Hertel, Anne Gabriela; Zedrosser, Andreas; Mysterud, Atle; Støen, Ole-Gunnar; Steyaert, Sam; Swenson, Jon (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2016)Avoiding predators most often entails a food cost. For the Scandinavian brown bear (Ursus arctos), the hunting season coincides with the period of hyperphagia. Hunting mortality risk is not uniformly distributed throughout ...