Hey Siri – what’s the best route to a seafood joint?
New research highlights important routes to spawning salmon for coastal bears.
Like Google Maps for Salmon-seeking Bears, a new study in the journal, Ecology and Evolution, predicts key connectivity routes for grizzly and black bears among spawning sites used by salmon.
The team from the University of Victoria, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) Integrated Resource Management Department (HIRMD) developed and validated a connectivity model to estimate bear travel routes across a rugged landscape that hosts dozens of spawning locations scattered over 5,618 km2. The work answered the call to identify likely movement pathways for bears to be incorporated into landscape planning by HIRMD.
Coastal bears take advantage of the wave of spawning salmon that hit freshwater systems at different times along the coast each year. Key to a successful season of gorging on seafood without huge energy investments or risk-taking, however, is avoiding rugged terrain and industrial disturbance.
“Coastal grizzly and black bears both benefit from access to diverse salmon spawns” says Ilona Mihalik, lead author from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and PhD Candidate at the University of Victoria. “With this in mind, our aim was to collaboratively identify the routes bears might take on the landscape to access the different spawns throughout the season. Heiltsuk Knowledge was a big part of our model-building process,” adds Ilona.
William Housty, ED of HIRMD, started the first study of bears in Haíɫzaqv Territory in 2007, and now puts research findings into action in his role overseeing stewardship decisions. “This new study helps fill an important gap. Identifying candidate corridors to consider safeguarding from industrial practices can provide bears safe passage to support their feeding throughout the spawning season. It’s a strategy to give them a little something extra beyond our large series of protected areas.”
A model is only as good as its performance in making accurate predictions. This study took advantage of long-term non-invasive genetic sampling of fur captured across the same Haíɫzaqv landscape. Validation steps indicated that the model accurately predicted the likely routes individual bears traveled among sampling sites. “It’s not the first time or the last time that Heiltsuk Knowledge shows its value and ultimately supports our decision-making in the modern world,” says Housty.
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