An assessment of habitat suitability and human attitudes for black bear restoration in Mississippi

Recently, the issue of bear restoration has become a management concern in Mississippi, Ten public areas were identified as possible sites for bear restoration. Thus, landowners adjacent to these public lands were surveyed because this stakeholder group would be most directly affected by bear restoration efforts. Additionally, because all Mississippians should have a voice in management of public resources such as wildlife, I also surveyed Mississippi households. Concurrently, assessments of habitat suitability were conducted on these areas and statewide.; Most survey respondents supported increasing the black bear population in Mississippi. Support for reintroduction was greatest for young, white male respondents which were educated, living in urban areas, and large property owners. Additionally, I documented that landowner attitudes toward bears differed between areas of high and low bear populations. Age, race, and sex were significant predictors of a respondent's support for bear reintroduction. Respondent's support for reintroduction decreased with age, for females and blacks. I used these demographic variables to develop a spatially explicit model of human attitudes for Mississippi.; I assessed habitat suitability of 10 public areas in Mississippi using the 3 existing black bear habitat suitability models, but results were unclear. Therefore, I developed a logistic model to predict bear habitat quality with soft mast basal area, hard mast canopy cover, and hard mast basal area as independent variables. Finally, I developed a landscape model for black bear restoration potential by overlying the model of human attitudes and habitat quality. The landscape model scored most of southern Mississippi as suitable, whereas northern Mississippi had low suitability. Additionally, the Delta region scored poorly, except for the batture and public lands. Although public lands in the Delta had high suitability, these areas were surrounded by unsuitable habitat and lacked corridors between habitat patches. Conversely, DeSoto and Homochitto National Forests had high suitability and were surrounded by suitable habitat. Additionally, DeSoto and Homochitto National Forests are capable of supporting bear populations 4–5 times greater in magnitude than public lands in the Delta.