Abstract
Maintaining biodiversity is of increasing concem for wildlife managers given habitat loss from human development, particularly for endangered and threatened species. Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos) in the conterminous 48 United States exist in 4 fragmented populations, with no known population in 2 recovery zones. Repopulation of all 6 recovery zones and connectivity between populations is a conservation goal. The Bitterroot recovery zone has no known Grizzly Bear population. Grizzly Bears from the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak ecosystems are beginning to repopulate the areas surrounding the Bitterroot ecosystem, which creates the need to quantify and predict habitat quality and connectivity among these populations. We collected GPS-tracking data for 164 bears (F=70, M=94) from the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak ecosystems (>13,280 km2) over the past 17 years. We mined an for identifying sex specific corridors between the Selkirk, Cabinet-Yaak, and Bitterroot. Preliminary results indicate that 70 bears (F=28, M=42) traveled an average of 742 m per step for females and 930 m per step for males, at 2-h fixed rates in the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak ecosystems. Of 164 Grizzly Bears used, 48 bears (F=15, M=33) left recovery zones. This suggests that although Grizzly Bear dispersal is male biased, females are willing to leave recovery zones, which is necessary for recolonization. Next steps include developing a model for Grizzly Bear habitat selection to identify critical connectivity corridors among recovery zones. These results will inform conservation planning in the next several years.