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Successful management has brought the Scandinavian brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) back from the brink of extinction, but as the population grows and expands the probability of bear-human encounters increases. More people express concerns about spending time in the forest, because of the possibility of encountering bears, and acceptance for the bear is decreasing. In this context, reliable informa...

We examined the reasons bears are reported killed in defense of life or property (DLP) in Alaska as an index to causes and frequency of conflicts between humans and bears, and compared the sex and age composition of DLP kills with that of sport-killed bears. Data came from standardized questionnaires filled out by persons shooting the bears. Numbers of sport-killed brown bears (Ursus arctos) an...

Complaints associated with nuisance activity by Louisiana black bears (Ursus americanus luteolus) in south Louisiana have steadily increased since 2000, demanding intervention by state and federal agencies. As a federally threatened species, Louisiana black bears that are a nuisance require nonlethal management, referred to as aversive conditioning. We used rubber buckshot and dogs to test the ...

The effect of enclosure design on diurnal activity and stereotypic behaviour was assessed in 17 adult Malayan Sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), kept either in barren indoor enclosures or relatively enriched outdoor enclosures. Locomotion was the most frequent activity observed in the indoor bears, followed by resting. In contrast, conspecifics housed outdoors spent most of the time resting. Elev...

Aversive conditioning (AC) has the potential to temporarily reduce conflicts between humans and black bears (Ursus americanus). From 2002 to 2005, I evaluated the effectiveness of projectiles with varying impact intensities, pepper spray, and chasing on approximately 150 bears in Sequoia National Park. Aversive conditioning was successful in keeping bears that were not food-conditioned from bec...

Recent studies have reported discordant gene trees in the evolution of brown bears and polar bears. Genealogical histories are different among independent nuclear loci and between biparentally inherited autosomal DNA (aDNA) and matrilineal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Based on multi-locus genomic sequences from aDNA and mtDNA, we inferred the population demography of brown and polar bears and fou...