Brown bears and ecotourism: Do changes in behavior have nutritional consequences

Ecotourism is a rapidly growing industry and often sought as an economic incentive for wildlife conservation. In an effort to develop a broad conceptual understanding of the interaction between ecotourism and bears, this study examined the responses of brown bears (Ursus arctos ) to experimentally introduced ecotourism within the framework of current predator-prey theory. Two study areas were used to assess the effects of experimentally introduced bear-viewing on brown bear behavior, food intake, and condition. GPS collars were deployed to track temporal and spatial resource use and scan and focal observations were used to quantify foraging efficiency, vigilance behavior, and bear use of various food resources. Seasonal food availability and quality were monitored and utilized as co-variates in comparisons between control and treatment years. In addition, the effects of food availability, sexual dimorphism, and human activity on bear resource use were examined across 13 study areas throughout Alaska and British Columbia. Though experimental bear-viewing altered spatiotemporal resource use in all treatments, total resource use declined only when bears were exposed to 24-hour daily human activity.{09}Specific bear responses were associated with the availability of alternate foraging opportunities and the perceived risk from close human encounters. Though the bear population on average exhibited significant behavioral differences between the presence and absence of humans, individual bears balanced a variety of behavioral strategies to maintain food intake. Body weight and composition were unaffected by all treatments as bears shifted their foraging to other locations or times. Use of salmon streams by adult males across bear-viewing sites throughout Alaska and British Columbia was dependent on availability of alternative salmon resources, capture rates at viewing sites, and hunting pressure in surrounding areas. Use of habitats by females with dependent young was significantly related to the percentage of adult males at the site. We conclude that successful management of bear-viewing sites require consideration of the role differing reproductive strategies, availability of alternative resources, and human uses have on affecting use of viewing sites and access to necessary food resources.