Implications of the variable availability of seasonal foods on the home ranges of black bears, Ursus americanus, in the Sierra Nevada of California

摘要

Background Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) seeds and oak (Quercus spp.) acorns are both important fall food sources for a variety of wildlife in the Sierra Nevada, but both have variable mast production and are in decline. Sugar pines are in decline due to white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) infection and oaks are in decline due to fire exclusion and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) predation. To examine how a change in availability of seed and acorn crops from these trees could have a cascading effect on associated wildlife, we studied their relationship to black bear (Ursus americanus) fall ranges in Sequoia National Park, California. The distribution of seed-bearing sugar pines overlaps with the bears’ summer range, whereas acorn-bearing oaks occur at lower elevations. We used GPS collars and field observations to collect location data on ten wild, adult, female bears during the summer and fall of both 2005 and 2006, and then compared these data on habitat use with the Park’s vegetation map of available habitat.