Grizzly Bears and Resource-Extraction Industries: Habitat Displacement in Response to Seismic Exploration, Timber Harvesting and Road Maintenance

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Abstract
(1) The response of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos Ord) to gas exploration and timber harvest was investigated by comparing the locations of radio-collared individuals before, during, and after the activity in five tests. (2) In the first test, there was no significant difference in distribution of four bears involved in eleven bear-seismic situations over 3 years (data combined). In comparisons of within-year distributions of individual bears, two of the eleven bears showed a significant difference in habitat use. (3) Significant displacement was not found in the four other bear-industry interactions, including two seismic, one road maintenance and one timber-harvest activity. These activities all occurred in spring, when bears are more mobile than in summer. (4) The effect of industrial activity on the productivity of the test bears, the potential factors influencing the general lack of displacement, and management implications are discussed.