University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1997 Habitat use of black bears in the northeast Cascades of Washington Andrea Lee. Gold The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Gold, Andrea Lee., "Habitat use of black bears in the northeast Cascades of Washington" (1997). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 6411. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/6411 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. \ f HABITAT USE OF BLACK BEARS IN THE NORTHEAST CASCADES OF WASHINGTON By Andrea Lee Gold B A , The University of San Diego, 1993 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 1997 Approved W: / / y Chairman, Board of Exagiiners Dean, Graduate School q -9 -? 7 Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: EP37212 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT OMaartation PuNiahing UMI EP37212 Published by ProQuest LLC (2013). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQ^st' ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Gold, Andrea Lee, M.S., August 1997 Wildlife Biology Habitat use of black bears in the northeast Cascades of Washington Director: Dr. Christopher W. Servheen I examined habitat use of black bears in the northeast Cascade Mountains of Washington during 1995 and 1996. I obtained 1916 aerial radiolocations for 26 black bears and analyzed habitat selection within annual home ranges. I used a vegetation map created for the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Ecosystem to define habitat variables and compared 3 habitat use analysis techniques. I compared the results of the univariate chi-square method and the multivariate compositional analysis method using point relocations. Habitat use studies which use the chi-square method violate the unit sum constraint presented by proportional use versus availability data. The chi square method also violates assumptions of independence with use of relocation summaries as the sample size, rather than individual bears, whereas compositional analysis satisfies these requirements. I then compared compositional analysis at two scales, point (telemetry relocation) and area (buflfered relocation). I examined use within the area surrounding the telemetry relocation with a radius equivalent to the median aerial telemetry error for this study (230 meters). I found the original form of the vegetation map had too many habitat classes for practical statistical analyses, and the pixel size too large for accurate mapping of important small habitat components. However, vegetation classes could be combined to produce a bear habitat map. All habitat use methods indicated black bears exhibited habitat selection. Chi-square results suggested black bears selected for douglas-fir, riparian forests, and deciduous forests, and selected against hemlock, other conifers, fire and bare ground. Compositional analysis with point relocations (CAP) suggested riparian forest, douglas-fir and meadows were the 3 most important habitat classes. Results of compositional analysis with buffered relocations (CAA) were similar to CAP, but CAA displayed greater resolution and suggested deciduous forest and ponderosa pine were also important to bears. Riparian and mesic sites, and mosmcs of open and forested areas are important to black bears in the northeast Cascades. Habitat classes selected for or important to bears tended to display slightly greater but statistically not significant bear food plant species diversity. Compositional analysis of habitat selection with area data provided a more sound scientific analysis of habitat use and improved reliability of results. 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was funded by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service, Wenatchee National Forest and Okanogan National Forest. Many people assisted me in different phases of my study and I owe them all a heartfelt thank you. I thank Bill Gaines, Gary Koehler, and Bob Naney for giving me the chance to work on black bears. Bill has been a major inspiration behind my desire to study wildlife and I thank him for sharing his wealth of knowledge on bears, wildlife and the woods. Thanks for the fnendship, the encouragement, the funding, the many hours of careful manuscript editing, and most importantly for entrusting me with this project and giving me the freedom to tackle the issues independently and in my own way. Thanks to Gary for allowing me to participate in the Washington State Black Bear Project and for providing funding. I would like to thank Bob Naney for providing funding, advice and for taking time out of his busy schedule to help out with various aspects of the study. Ginger Holser was my counterpart throughout 2 arduous field seasons. Her contribution to this study is immeasurable and I am grateful for her assistance and friendship. Her accomplishments are inspiring. I thank Dr. Chris Servheen for taking me on as his lone black bear student. I am indebted to him for his encouragement, positive attitude throughout the study, helpful criticism on drafts and for giving me many different opportunities to experience bear ecology in Montana and Washington. Thank you to Wayne Kasworm for clearing up the mystery of home range calculation and allowing me to observe and participate in his wonderfully caring animal handling techniques. Thank you as well to the rest of Chris’s crew, Per Sandstrom, Keely Drollinger and Donna Hatch for their help and kindness. Special thanks to Tom Radandt and Harry Carriles for coming to Washington to assist with bear immobilizations. I thank Dr. Dan Pletscher and Dr. Ray Callaway for participating on my committee and contributing helpful and thought-provoking ideas. Jeannie Franz was also very helpful with many long-distance details. I am grateful to Ron Perrow for countless hours of spectacular flights over the 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. North Cascades. Ron is a talented and entertaining pilot whose knowledge of the area and enthusiasm for the project made my job much easier. My thanks for his cooperation in producing many successful missions and for keeping us safe I thank Jim Haberberger and Wayne Hart of Leavenworth, R.D. for spending many hours on my project, teaching me the art of GIS and providing results when I needed it “yesterday”! Thank you to the Leavenworth Wildlife and Botany Crews and the students of Wildland’s Studies for assisting with bountiful data collection and plant identification. My gratitude goes to Connie Sonnichsen, Doug Houston, John Button, Steve Reyaund and the North Cascades Smokejumpers for generously accommodating many of my needs. I thank the many U.S. Forest Service employees at the Twisp and Winthrop Districts and Wenatchee and Okanogan Supervisors Offices who helped me in the office. In addition, I thank Simon Baker, Jesse Moore, MaryEllen Hoemer and Sherrie Farmer for volunteering their time and energy. Sincere thanks go to Fred Hovey for taking time to answer my many questions about the concept of compositional analysis and for creating the computer program to perform the statistical analysis. Jesse Gold has endured this adventure with me and I cannot thank him enough for his support. He has been behind me from the start and willingly helped me in the field and in the office. I thank him for his love, patience and uncanny knack for making me laugh when I felt like crying. Michelle and Wes Jennings have also been there from the beginning and their friendship is priceless. Thank you also to my parents, for nurturing