Behavioral correlates of supplementary feeding of wildlife: Can general conclusions be drawn?

By Sam Steyaert, J. Kindberg, K. Jerina, Miha Krofel, Matija Stergar, Jon E. Swenson, A. Zedrosser. 2014

83 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Supplementary feeding is a common, but controversial, tool in wildlife management, because it can benefit both humans and wildlife (e.g., increased wildlife densities), but has certain downsides (e.g., increased disease transmission). For species that are often involved in human-wildlife conflicts, two opposing paradigms with respect to supplementary feeding exist, i.e., (i) that supplementary feeding is efficient to lure animals away from undesired places (i.e., diversionary feeding; hypothesis 1), and (ii) that supplementary feeding stimulates ‘nuisance’ behavior (i.e., increased tolerance for humans and selection for human facilities; hypothesis 2). We formulated an alternative hypothesis (hypothesis 3); i.e., that behavioral variation among individuals dilutes population-wide, general patterns with respect to supplementary feeding. Based on GPS relocation data and resource selection functions, we show that neither of the two opposing management paradigms (hypothesis 1 and 2) hold in a particularly ‘conflict rich’ species, the brown bear (Ursus arctos), because individual variation in selection behavior with respect to supplementary feeding diluted population-wide patterns (hypothesis 3), even under very different environmental contexts (Sweden vs. Slovenia; i.e., different human and bear population density, history and intensity of supplementary feeding, topography, etc.). Our results emphasize that individual variation is an important component of behavioral ecology and should be considered in wildlife management and conservation.

Subfields: Ecology, Genetics, Small Animals

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bdc5bc0feea66aa426116112e3390a62cc7b3f20

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In Ecology

In Genetics

K. Jerina

In Small Animals

Citations in the corpus

Consequences of brown bear viewing tourism : A review (2017, background): “For example in Slovenia, intensive supplemental feeding of 343 bears was suggested to be the reason for the highest known reproductive rates for this 344 species and corresponding intensive culling aimed to prevent the population growth 345 (Krofel et al., 2012a; Reding, 2015).”
Evolutionary and ecological traps for brown bears Ursus arctos in human‐modified landscapes (2018, background): “Recent studies indicates that artificial feeding in different natural and managed settings may in fact increase, not affect, or decrease conflict rates (Kavčič et al. 2013, Steyaert et al. 2014, Stringham & Bryant 2015, Bautista et al. 2016, Garshelis et al. 2017, Morehouse & Boyce 2017).”