The Bear Minimum: Brown bears “bearly” react to secondary research activities

Abstract

Anthropogenic disturbances can alter wildlife movement, potentially causing changes in behavior, increased stress, reduced fitness, and, in severe cases, death. This study focuses on how non-intrusive field research activities, hereafter referred to as "secondary research activities", affect brown bear movement behavior. To identify potential disturbance events, we used GPS data from 42 brown bears (22 females and 20 males) and coordinates from 53 den sites used during the previous hibernation period. We established a 300 meter buffer around den visit locations and a 600 meter buffer around bears, identifying 9 events where bears and researchers were within these buffers. To ensure accuracy in monitoring researcherbear interactions, we excluded hours between 23:00 and 08:00 when researchers were not in the field. We calculated the daily Net Squared Displacement (NSD) for a three-day period surrounding each disturbance event (the day before, during and after) to analyze possible changes in movement distance as a response to secondary research activities. We did not find clear differences in movement distances by bears in close proximity to researchers, though we did find individual differences. To achieve a more comprehensive understanding of how brown bears respond to secondary research activities, future studies should consider larger sample sizes or a longer study period in combination with integration of physiological data. Taking individual variability into account is essential for developing ethical research practices that aim to reduce the impact on wildlife while performing field research.