We found divergent patterns in brown bear annual and seasonal space use within two island populations, demonstrating marked ecological and behavioral plasticity, as documented previously on the Kodiak Archipelago [35]. Annual brown bear range sizes were influenced by the temporal availability of resources and their spatial distribution. Support for the TRVH occurred in the Sitkalidak population in spring, however contrary to our predictions both study populations supported the RDH in summer, likely due to an increase in range size to meet optimal nutritional gain. Both populations again contrasted in their support for either hypothesis in fall, and overall these results demonstrate divergences between optimal range sizes within and between temporal scales, likely dependent on available resources and landscape structure within each system.
At an annual scale the Sitkalidak brown bear population, inhabiting an island without forests or elk as potential prey, followed the TRVH. We found a positive correlation between brown bear annual range size and distance from coasts, where increasing distances from coasts resulted in larger ranges. This is likely attributed to bears traversing greater areas to meet nutritional demands when further from coastal marine resources. Coastal intertidal habitats can provide important food for bears throughout the year, particularly following den emergence [48]. Marine invertebrates, clams, and kelp along with whale carcasses (which occur more frequently on Sitkalidak Island coastal shores than on Afognak Island) are potential important foods which may in part explain the increased importance of coastal areas for this island population [35, 56].
Contrary to our predictions, brown bear space use on Sitkalidak Island supported the TRVH in spring. Similar to annual space use, support for the TRVH on Sitkalidak during spring is likely attributed to the concentration of emerging vegetation and clumped coastal food resources [35, 48, 57]. Males from both islands occupied larger ranges than solitary females and females with young, likely attributed to mate-seeking behavior during the breeding season [58]. We also found support for the TRVH in the Afognak population in fall. Terrestrial meat is an important food for brown bears, particularly when vegetation and marine resources are limited, and is linked to increased body mass [59]. Brown bears prey on ungulate neonates to varying extents depending on species, availability, and location [60, 61]. We did not find a relationship between the presence of female elk during calving (spring) and bear range size on Afognak, which may reflect population-level opportunistic foraging of elk calves, as observed with black bears (Ursus americanus) and neonatal ungulates [49, 62, 63]. However, during the elk hunting period (fall), a decrease in the probability of elk occurrence resulted in an increase in bear range size on Afognak. This is possibly due to bears scavenging on discarded elk carcasses [64], and when less carrion is available bears increase their space use to obtain sufficient nutrients [65]. Alternatively, this could be due to bears foraging on the same vegetative resources as elk during fall [66]. Support for TRVH at both annual and seasonal scales in these two populations appears in response to varied temporal concentrations of terrestrial meat, vegetation, and coastal food resources, suggesting the temporal availability of food resources is more influential on range size then their spatial distribution.
At an annual scale we found support for the RDH within the Afognak population, likely in part a result of greater spatial variability of resources due to increased habitat fragmentation from commercial timber harvest. Brown bears can select for or against areas with commercial timber harvest [45, 67, 68]. Clearcut areas can provide abundant berry-producing species, which can increase through 20 years following harvest [45, 69], but associated disturbance can disrupt denning [70] and lead to increased hunting pressure [71]. We found that brown bear annual range sizes decreased with increased proportions of recent clearcuts (0–5 years old). An increase in proportions of older clearcut areas (6–20 years old) also resulted in larger range sizes. Similar selection of clearcuts by grizzly bears has been reported in other areas [67, 72, 73, 74, 75] and suggests that clearcut areas on Afognak Island provided increased food for bears at this larger temporal scale. We also noted a positive relationship between proportions of older forests (> 60 years) and range sizes of bears on Afognak Island. Older-aged forests can provide abundant devil’s club which is consumed by brown bears, denning habitat [70], and often occur adjacent to salmon streams on Afognak.
Contrary to our predictions, bears in both populations demonstrated support for the RDH in summer, a season of increased resource availability [35]. Following RDH, animals should increase their space use as resource patches become more dispersed throughout the environment [9]. Barnes [33] also reported increased range sizes in summer among brown bears on southern Kodiak Island. Similar effects on space use were reported by Valeix et al [76], who noted that African lion (Panthera leo) movements followed the RDH, where pride range sizes increased as waterholes (a proxy for prey) became more dispersed. Although salmon and berries become more abundant throughout our study system during summer, their distributions are patchy. Optimal mass gain in brown bear occurs with mixed diets of meat (terrestrial and aquatic) and vegetation [77], thus bears likely adhered to the RDH in summer as they moved between patches to gain more diverse nutritional resources [13]. Despite both populations supporting the RDH in summer, we noted divergent optimal behavioral strategies, where males on both islands adhered to an area minimization strategy, likely a result of their dominance over resource patches [19]. In comparison, solitary female space use supported a resource maximization strategy, while females with dependent young displayed variation between these two strategies depending on study location. This variation in strategy may reflect the number and age of offspring accompanying females, where females with younger offspring (cubs of the year) may avoid resource patches occupied by more dominant individuals [78]. Despite the importance of salmon in the diet and subsequent movement behavior of brown bears [26, 32, 33, 34], we did not find a relationship between the distance to salmon streams and bear range size. However, we suspect this is attributed to the large abundance and close spatial proximity of salmon streams throughout our study sites. In essence, bears were never far from a stream with salmon, reducing the importance of this covariate in our models.
We found varied responses in brown bear range size to landscape heterogeneity in both populations during summer. Alike to Mangipane et al. [13] who noted increased homogenous landscapes resulted in increased brown bear range sizes, we found that as patch edge density decreased (suggesting a more homogenous landscape), Afognak bear range sizes increased. Further supporting the ecological flexibility of this species, we found that Sitkalidak population range sizes were influenced by heterogeneous landscapes during the same period, where an increase in Shannon’s diversity resulted in smaller range sizes. Smith and Pelton [79] similarly noted black bear range size decreased with increased habitat diversity in Arkansas. However, increased landscape heterogeneity resulted in larger black bear range sizes in Missouri, USA [6]. We suspect the relationship between homogenous landscapes and increased range sizes in the Afognak population may be due to abundant food sources (e.g. berries, salmon) spatially dispersed among patches, increasing the need to traverse larger areas [35, 80]. This relationship may also be the outcome of extensive timber harvest on Afognak, which has resulted in homogenous patches of young trees. These monoculture regeneration units likely do not consistently provide sufficient food for bears at these temporal scales [74], resulting in larger range sizes. The variation in range size between homogenous and heterogeneous landscapes in both populations likely reflects changing abundances and distributions of important foods [35, 75].
The Sitkalidak population again supported the RDH in fall, where range sizes were influenced by habitat homogeneity, with decreasing edge density resulting in smaller ranges. This is potentially a result of the relationship with berry habitat found in this season, where an increase in this habitat type also resulted in reduced range sizes. Late salmon runs in this system are also likely an important resource monopolized by this population. Sitkalidak bears adhered to an area minimization strategy within the RDH and reduced their movements, perhaps to exploit habitats with both higher berry and salmon availability [75]. These results corroborate previous suggestions that animals reduce range sizes when there is high predictability of resource distribution across the landscape [1]. Support for the RDH in this population is likely the result of bears altering movements to exploit berry and salmon resources for optimal mass gain, similar to results found in the summer.
As predicted, we found males in both populations occupied larger ranges compared to females at both temporal scales. In polygynous mating systems, such as with brown bears, males often exploit larger areas to increase their reproductive opportunities during the breeding season [58]. Similar to studies on black bears [6, 81] and brown bears [20], males in our study held larger ranges compared to solitary females and females with dependent young. However, bears on Afognak used larger median ranges in fall compared to spring (when mating occurs) whereas males on Sitkalidak maintained their largest median range during spring. Increased space use among males is likely a result of increased metabolic demands associated with larger body sizes in fall [20] and mate-seeking behavior in spring [58]. Our sample size for male brown bears on Sitkalidak was lower than for males on Afognak, which may underestimate true range size variation in this population. We found that solitary females held smaller ranges than females with young on Afognak across multiple seasons. This result was opposite to what we predicted under an infanticide risk avoidance strategy [20], and suggests that females with young have larger ranges to support their increased metabolic demands associated with cub rearing [18]. Although we found no differences in range size between solitary females and females with young on Sitkalidak Island, solitary females held larger average median ranges annually and in summer.
We found no evidence to support our predictions of age-based dominance resulting in larger ranges in brown bears. However, more dominant individuals may hold smaller and more productive ranges to monopolize resource rich areas [82], particularly during salmon season for brown bears [19]. We suggest that future studies include age and body mass data to better examine whether larger and more dominant individuals exhibit divergent space use patterns. We acknowledge sampling limitations, particularly among the Sitkalidak population. We had lower sample sizes overall for males in this population, and low sample sizes for females with young during spring. However, despite these limitations and given our overall sample size and study duration, we suggest these patterns within an optimality framework are ecologically relevant.
Temporal and spatial heterogeneity are key ecological mechanisms structuring animal ranges [81]; we provide evidence in support of animals making behavioral choices to expand and contract ranges based on resource availability and demographic characteristics [82]. Few studies addressing home range estimation have fully considered range size dynamics, or the “how” and “why” of animal movement ecology [3]. We add to Nathan [3] and Tao et al [82] by demonstrating the benefits of combining optimality theory and utilization distributions to understand how internal and external states of animals influence range fluctuations. Optimality theory provides a unique framework to examine periodic changes in range sizes in response to forage, and ultimately better understand the fitness motivated movement decisions made by animals [82]. The highly variable temporal support observed for RDH and TRVH within and between two island populations in a single metapopulation emphasizes the importance of scale and location considerations when examining animal spatial ecology. Throughout much of the world, human activities can markedly influence movements of animals through landscape alterations and hunting, as found in our study system. It is increasingly important to better understand spatio-temporal patterns and underlying mechanisms underpinning animal movement, coupled with anthropogenic influences, and their roles in ecological and evolutionary processes.