BlackBear

ReintroductionProject

2000-2001Matt Schroeder, Trinia

Bergman, and Joe Sudbrink

Augusta HS

•Over the past six years the DNR has been trying to reintroduce orphan bear cubs found around the state.

•They are reintroduced into the Eau Claire County forest.

•When orphans are found they’re taken to the Mackenzie Center were they can be raised in isolation.

•To find out if they establish normal patterns and stay away from humans.

•Then we analyzed the information and made home range maps and charts on there habitat use.

•Local Schools have been involved in tracking the bears for six years.

•This year our job was to track them and map their locations, calculate ranges and habitat use.

We track the bears using radio telemetry as soon as they come out of their den in spring until they den in the winter.

We get a good location on the bear by taking three different readings. Wherever they intersect is the bears location.

Accuracy test

•How accurate are the bear locations we map compared to the exact location of the bear?•We put six collars out at field research station.

•We used our telemetry to map the collars like we would a bear. •We plugged our points into ArcView and measured the distances from our points to the exact locations of the collars.

•On the average we were accurate to within .25 miles of the true locations.

ArcView was used to measure distances between real and telemetry locations.

Bear Radio-Telemetry Data

Analysis

•The Animal Movement Analyst is used as an Arc View extension. Arc View is the most widely used GIS throughout the world.

•We plot our data using ArcView and calculate home ranges using the Animal Movement Analysis extension from Alaskan Fish and Wildlife.

The harmonic mean home range method is a technique that is especially useful in determining animal activity centers.

Minimum Convex Polygon analysis gives you the minimum total range of the bear data.

Kernal Home Range

• The 95% Contours are the area the animal actually uses.

• The 50% contours are considered the core area of animal activity.

• Comparisons between animals are best done using the 50% contour data.

Bear 50% KHR insquare miles

Type

HorseCreek .82 ReintroducedCoonFork 2.13 ReintroducedHumbird 8.08 Reintroduced

Ludington 5.59 Natural

Analyzing Bear Locations by

Vegetation Type

Using ArcView and the Wisconsin Vegetation Data, we analyze each bear location for vegetation type.

Zoom in to each data point and use the identify tool to classify vegetation for each point

The results show the vegetation type at a minimum of 5 acre blocks

Jack PineForest-WetlandRed PineAg. CornShrublandOakAspenGrasslandWetlandOpen WaterBroad-leaved DeciduousDeciduous/Coniferous

32%

8% 8%

24%

8%4%

2%6%

Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories - Coon Fork Bear

2%

32%

Broad Leaved-Deciduous

Deciduous-Coniferous

Oak

Aspen

Red Pine

Jackpine

Ag. Forage Crops

Ag. Other Row/Crops

Ag. Corn

Wetland

Forested Wetland

Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories- Humbird Bear 35%

17%16%

3%

2%

1%

8%

5%

2% 5% 6%

Jackpine

Broad leave-Deciduous

Oak

Red pine

Foested Wetland

Wetland

Deciduous/Coniferous

Grassland

Ag. Corn

Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories

Horse Creek Bear

34%5%

7%

18%

2%5%

2% 2%25%

Aspen

Jackpine

Broad leavedDeciduousOak

Redpine

Forest-Wetland

Shrubland

Wetland

5%

5%

5%

3%3% 3%8%

65%

Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories - Ludington Bear

65%

Humbird Bear

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

14 March - 02 June, 1999 03 June - 31 July, 1999 01 August - 03 September,1999

04 September - 27 December,1999

Time of Year

Lo

cati

on

by

Per

cen

tag

e

Ludington Bear

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

14 March - 02 June, 1999 03 June - 31 July, 1999 01 August - 03 September,1999

04 September - 27 December,1999

Time of Year

Lo

cati

on

by

Per

cen

tCoon Fork Bear

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

14 March - 02 June, 1999 03 June - 31 July, 1999 01 August - 03 September,1999

04 September - 27 December,1999

Time of Year

Lo

cati

on

By

Per

cen

t

Horse Creek Bear

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

14 March - 02 June, 1999 03 June - 31 July, 1999 01 August - 03 September,1999

04 September - 27 December,1999

Time of Year

Lo

cati

on

by

Per

cen

t

Humbird Female Luddington Female

Coonfork Male Horsecreek Female3/99-6/3/99 6/4/99-8/3/99 8/99 9/99-12/99

Humbird Female

3/00-6/3/00 6/4/00-8/3/00 8/00 9/99-12/00

3/99-6/3/99 6/4/99-8/3/99 8/99 9/99-12/99 3/00-6/3/00 6/4/00-8/3/00 8/00 9/00-12/00

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

1 4 M a rc h -

0 2 Ju n e ,

1 9 9 9

0 3 Ju n e - 3 1

Ju ly, 1 9 9 9

0 1 A u g u st - 0 3

S e p te mb e r,

1 9 9 9

0 4

S e p te mb e r -

2 7

Broad LeavedDeciduous

Deciduous/Coniferous

Oak

Aspen

Jackpine

Ag. Forage Crops

Ag. Other RowCrops

Ag. Corn

Wetland

ForesetedWetland

Shrubland

Open Water

Grassland

Bear Locations by Vegetation Type and Time of Year

When the bears come out of their dens in the spring, we want to track them right away, and keep tracking them until they den next winter.

Any Questions?