Black

1. Black Bear Reintroduction Project 2000-2001 Matt Schroeder, Trinia Bergman, and Joe Sudbrink Augusta HS

2. Over the past six years the DNR has been trying to reintroduce orphan bear cubs found around the state. • When orphans are found they’re taken to the Mackenzie Center were they can be raised in isolation. • They are reintroduced into the Eau Claire County forest.

3. Local Schools have been involved in tracking the bears for six years. • To find out if they establish normal patterns and stay away from humans. • This year our job was to track them and map their locations, calculate ranges and habitat use. • Then we analyzed the information and made home range maps and charts on there habitat use.

4. We track the bears using radio telemetry as soon as they come out of their den in spring until they den in the winter.

5. We get a good location on the bear by taking three different readings. Wherever they intersect is the bears location.

6. Accuracy test • How accurate are the bear locations we map compared to the exact location of the bear? • We put six collars out at field research station. • We used our telemetry to map the collars like we would a bear. • We plugged our points into ArcView and measured the distances from our points to the exact locations of the collars. • On the average we were accurate to within .25 miles of the true locations.

7. ArcView was used to measure distances between real and telemetry locations.

8. Bear Radio-Telemetry Data Analysis

9. We plot our data using ArcView and calculate home ranges using the Animal Movement Analysis extension from Alaskan Fish and Wildlife. • The Animal Movement Analyst is used as an Arc View extension. Arc View is the most widely used GIS throughout the world.

12. The harmonic mean home range method is a technique that is especially useful in determining animal activity centers.

14. Minimum Convex Polygon analysis gives you the minimum total range of the bear data.

16. Kernal Home Range • The 95% Contours are the area the animal actually uses. • The 50% contours are considered the core area of animal activity. • Comparisons between animals are best done using the 50% contour data.

22. Analyzing Bear Locations by Vegetation Type

23. Using ArcView and the Wisconsin Vegetation Data, we analyze each bear location for vegetation type.

24. Zoom in to each data point and use the identify tool to classify vegetation for each point

25. The results show the vegetation type at a minimum of 5 acre blocks

26. Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories - Coon Fork Bear 32% 8% 8% 32% 24% 8% 4% 6% 2% 2%

27. Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories- Humbird Bear 2% 6% 5% 35% 5% 8% 1% 2% 3% 17% 16%

28. Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories Horse Creek Bear 2% 2% 5% 25% 2% 18% 7% 5% 34%

29. Percentage of Data Points in Various Vegetation Categories - Ludington Bear 3% 3% 8% 3% 5% 5% 5% 65% 65%

30. Bear Locations by Vegetation Type and Time of Year Humbird Female Luddington Female Humbird Female 3/99-6/3/99 6/4/99-8/3/99 8/99 9/99-12/99 3/00-6/3/00 6/4/00-8/3/00 8/00 9/99-12/00 Coonfork Male Horsecreek Female 3/99-6/3/99 6/4/99-8/3/99 8/99 9/99-12/99 3/00-6/3/00 6/4/00-8/3/00 8/00 9/00-12/00

31. When the bears come out of their dens in the spring, we want to track them right away, and keep tracking them until they den next winter.

32. Any Questions?