University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-1998 Habitat Use and Effects of Prescribed Fire on Black Bears in Northwestern Florida Marty R. Stratman University of Tennessee, Knoxville Recommended Citation Stratman, Marty R., "Habitat Use and Effects of Prescribed Fire on Black Bears in Northwestern Florida. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1998. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4531 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Marty R. Stratman entitled "Habitat Use and Effects of Prescribed Fire on Black Bears in Northwestern Florida." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. Mike Pelton, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Joe Clark, Edward R. Buckner Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the GraduateCouncil: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by MartyR. Stratmanentitled "Habitat use andeffects of prescribed fireon black bears in northwesternFlorida." I haveexamined the final copy of this thesis for formand content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degreeof Masterof Science, with a major in Wildlife Science. t?c�- Miken�'l'elton, Major Professor We have read this thesis and Accepted for the Council: Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of The Graduate School HABITAT USE AND EFFECTS OF PRESCRIBED FIRE ON BLACK BEARS IN NORTHWESTERN FLORIDA A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville MartyR. Stratman May 1998 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to the wind, the water, andthe woods, andall those who live there too. Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thankmy major professorDr. Mike Pelton forgiving me the opportunity to become abearguy. I also thankmy committeemembers Drs. Joe Clark, Ed Buckner, andMel Sunquistfor their assistance and reviewof this manuscript. I am especially gratefulto Dave Brandenburgand Todd Allen for teaching me the art of trappingand handling black bears. My deep appreciation is expressedto Dr. Frank vanManen and Donny Martorellofor their computerassistance, technical advice and editing throughoutthe writing of thismanuscript. I thankthe rest of the bear guys for their entertaining conversationsand personalities. You made graduate school bearable. I express my gratitude to Dr. Arnold Saxton of the Statistical and Computing Services for his assistanceon compositional analysis. I extendniy appreciation to Mike Thomas of the Florida State Collection of Arthropods, University of Florida forhis assistancewith identifying invertebratesamples. I am grateful to David Alden and all the summer techniciansfor their friendshipand assistancein collecting data. Appreciation is extended to Carl Petrick for his technical support, advice and friendship duringthe study. His initiative made this project a reality. A special thanks goes to the many other staffmembers at Jackson Guard, whose assistance and friendships I will always remember. Especially helpful were: BruceHagedorn, Justin Johnson, and Dennis Teague forflying for missing bears, patient assistanceand advice throughoutthe project; andDoug Smith forhis help withthe fireand habitat coverages. Financial IV supportfor thisstudy wasprovided by the Department of Defense, Legacy Resource ManagementProgram and United State AirForce, Eglin AFB, Florida. Most of all, I would like to thank my wife Christy andmy son Tyler for their love and support throughout this project;you kept me focusedon what's important. V ABSTRACT I determined foodhabits, habitat use, andthe effects of fireon habitat use by Florida black bears(Ursus americanusfloridanus)on Eglin Air Force Base (Eglin), Florida fromNovember 1994 to October 1996. I determined the annual and seasonal diet of bears from 259 scats collected on Eglin. Annual diet was dominatedby shrub/vine fruit (38%) andtree fruit (34%). Spring diets were dominatedby debris, fleshy material(hearts) of saw palmetto(Serenoa repens), beetles(Coleoptera), and yellow jackets (Hymenoptera). Blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) dominated the early swnmer diet, whereas sweet gallberry (/lex coriacea) andacorns (Quercus spp.)dominated the late summer diet. Acornsand saw palmettoberries dominated the fall diet accountingfor 93% of the diet by volume. Winter scats were dominated by saw palmettoand greenbriar berries (Smilaxspp. ). Vegetation, primarily the hearts of saw palmetto andgallberry leaves accounted for 27% by volume. The dominance of saw palmetto berriesin the 1994 fall diet indicates that bearsselected saw palmetto over acorns as the primaryfall food when available. I used a GIS andcompositional analysis to determine annualhabitat use from 1,891 location estimates of9 bears (3F, 6M). To determine seasonal habitat use, 1,049 location estimates of 10 bears(3F, 7M) forsummer and 794location estimatesof 10 bears(3F, 7M) forfall were used. Nomandomuse was detected for annual(P � 0.0027), summer(P � 0.0002), and fall(P � 0.0006) habitat use. Compositionalanalysis ranked habitats for annual usein the VI followingorder: riparian zones> swamps> pine plantations> sandhills> open areas. There was a difference(P � 0.025) in annualuse between riparianzones and swampsand each showed greater use than the remaining habitat associations. Riparianzones and swamps also ranked highest for summer and fall seasons. Riparian zones provided an abundant foodsupply, escapecover, and denning habitat. The decrease in vegetation densityalong the edges of riparianzones allowed bears to travel more efficientlywithin their home range. Pine plantationscontaining slash pine (Pinus elliottii) were usedmore than sandhillsduring the summerseason. The 3-5 yearburning cycle in pine habitats allowed many softmast speciesto reach maximum production. The lower use of sandhills during the summerwas attributed to the higher frequencyof fire. Frequent burningin sandhills reduced the amountof softmast available to bears. The use of sandhillswas highest during the fallseason, rankingthird in use. This coincided with the availabilityof oak hardmast and sawpalmetto berries. Open areas were used significantlyless thanall other habitat associationsduring the summer andfall seasons. The low use of open areas was attributed to the lack of sufficient cover. I used a GIS and compositional analysis to determinedthe annualand seasonal use of prescribedburns conducted from1988 to 1996 by black bears on Eglin. Nonrandomuse (P � 0.05) was detected in allyears except 1991 and 1995 for annual habitat use. Burned areas ranked highestfor years1989 ( 6-year-oldburns) and 1993 (2- year-old bums),ranking 3rd and4th, respectively. Burned areas generallyranked higher than open areasbut lower thanall other habitat types. Seasonal habitat use of burned Vil areas ranked 1993 (2-year-oldburns) and 1995 (<I-year-old burns) burns highest for summer and 1990 (5-year-old burns) and1993 (2-year-oldburns) burnshighest for fall. The most frequentlyused burnedareas were those adjacent to riparian zones and swamps. The strong dependenceon these areas for escape cover mayhave outweighed anydeleterious effects burns mayhave caused. Prescribed burning can be detrimental to bears during the winter denningseason. An adult female bear abandoned her den following a prescribed bum. In light of the above results management strategies are discussed that mayincrease the availabilityof softand hard mast andimprove habitat qualityfor black bears on Eglin. V111 TABLEOF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 II. STUDY AREA.......... ..................................................................................... 8 Location............. ...................................................................................... 8 Topographyand Geology ......................................................................... 8 Climate .................................................................................................. 12 Fauna..................................................................................................... 13 Flora ........................................................................................................ 14 Historyand Land Use ............................................................................... 15 III. METHODS............. ........................................................................................ 17 Trapping, Handling, andMarking .................. ........................................... 17 Radio Telemetry........... ............................................................................ 19 Home RangeEstimation ................. .......................................................... 20 Food Habits .Analysis....... ........................................................................