The impact of landscape disturbance on grizzly bear habitat use in the Foothills Model Forest, Alberta, Canada

The goal of this paper is to quantify the impact of habitat disturbance on the spatial-temporal trends in grizzly bear habitat use in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada using telemetry data. To meet this goal we delineate grizzly bear home ranges in three foraging seasons (hypophagia, early hyperphagia, and late hyperphagia) annually from 1999 to 2003. We then quantify and map temporal patterns in the annual persistence of home ranges over the study area. The spatial-temporal patterns of habitat use are related to annual landscape disturbance in order to determine if the probability of future use differs between disturbed and undisturbed locations. Background and Relevance Activities that lead to habitat loss may threaten the persistent of wildlife. Conservation and management planning require an understanding of how wildlife use habitat, in space and time, and how habitat use changes in response to landscape disturbances. The Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada are subject to the influences of human activities, such as mining, oil and gas exploration