Snow Leopard Survival Strategy - Panthera

system to be important for brown bear habitat were the
percentage of forest (positive), proximity to settlements
(negative) and elevation above see (positive), however
the decision tree did not account for habitat patch size.
After filtering out habitat patches smaller than 5000 ha
in GIS, the accuracy increased to 89% (KHAT 77%).
Whereas 88% of the habitat was within forests, only 33%
of all forests were considered suitable as habitat.
Linnell, J.D.C., J. Odden, M.E. Smith, R. Aanes and J.E.
Swenson. 1999. Large carnivores that kill livestock:
do “problem individuals” really exist? Wildlife Society
Bulletin 27:698-705.
Recovery of large carnivore populations often leads to
conflicts with livestock. As an alternative to widespread
control, there has been much focus on selective removal
of problem individuals. However, it is not always clear
if problem individuals really exist. Through a review
of the literature we examine the conceptual nature of
problem individuals, and the evidence for and against
their existence. The potential for individual and gender
specific differences in livestock killing behavior exists
among carnivores. In contrast to expectations, it does
not appear that inexperienced juveniles and infirm
adults are often involved in excessive depredation,
while it does appear that adult males are responsible
for a disproportionate amount of livestock depredation.
The form of husbandry in use is hypothesized to be
an important factor in the development of problem
individuals. Much more research on individual predation
behavior is urgently required.
Linnell, J. D. C., J. E. Swenson, R. Andersen and B.
Barnes. 2000. How vulnerable are denning bears to
disturbance? Wildlife Society Bulletin 28(2):400-413.
When exposed to human disturbance, most large
carnivores are able to move away from the source
with little energetic cost. Bears represent an exception
in that during winter, most individuals spend several
months in an energy-saving state of hibernation in a den.
This implies that disturbance of denning bears has the
potential to have a large energetic cost, although data on
the subject are rather diffuse. We reviewed the literature
on densite selection, denning physiology, and responses
to disturbance for the brown bear (Ursus arctos), black
bear (U. americanus), and polar bear (U. maritimus).
Generally, bears select dens one to 2 km from human
activity (roads, habitation, industrial activity) and seemed
to tolerate most activities that occurred more than one km
from the den. Activity closer than one km and especially
within 200 m caused variable responses. Some bears
tolerate disturbance even inside the den, but bears will
abandon dens in response to activity within this zone,
especially early in the denning period. Den abandonment
by brown and black bear females with cubs of the year
can lead to increased cub mortality. Specific excavated
or ground dens are rarely reused, whereas natural caves
or hollow trees are reused with varying frequency. There
is often some distance between an individual bear’s
consecutive dens. This indicates that loss of a single
denning area following human disturbance will not
always lead to deleterious effects, if alternative denning
areas are available within the home range.
Maehr, D. S. and G. B. Caddick. 1995. Demographics
and genetic introgression in the Florida panther.
Conservation Biology 9(5):1295-1298.
With the release of eight female Texas cougars (Felis
concolor stanleyana) into south Florida between March
and July 1995, natural resource agencies have embarked
on a task that is intended to restore the genetic integrity
of the Florida panther (F. c. coryi). Although this
intentional genetic introgression may, if successful,
eliminate phenotypic characters that are presumed to
derive from inbreeding, there is insufficient evidence
to support the contention that such drastic management
is currently necessary. Early panther research (1981-
1985) resulted in the impression that a remnant
population of panthers in south Florida was composed
of old, nonreproductive individuals suffering from
heavy parasitism, malnutrition, maladaptive phenotypic
characters, and a high rate of road mortality (Alvarez
1993; Meffe & Carroll 1994: 229; Foster & Humphrey
1995; but see Maehr et al. 1991a). More recently, cardiac
and male-reproductive anomalies have been cited as
evidence of inbreeding and as immediate threats to
the survival of the subspecies (Roelke & Glass 1992;
Roelke et al. 1993a). No male reproductive failures have
been observed in the population, however, and cardiac
problems were involved in only two known deaths
that were confounded by captive management of those
individuals. One of these occurred after a “rehabilitated,”
road-injured adult male was returned to the wild with
severely worn canines resulting from his efforts to escape
captivity. The other was a young adult female that died
immediately after surgery to correct a heart abnormality.
The notions of genetic and demographic collapse endure
to this day despite data that suggest otherwise.
Maehr, D. S. and J. A. Cox. 1995. Landscape features
and panthers in Florida. Conservation Biology 9(5):
1008-1019.
We used a geographic information system (GIS) to
document spatial associations of Florida panthers, land
cover, and other geographical features. Panther radio
locations (n = 14,548) occurred in hardwood hammock:
mixed hardwood swamp, and cypress swamp in greater
proportion than in randomly positioned points (n =
8500). Panther radio locations occurred less frequently
in agricultural, barren, and shrub and brush land cover.
Panther home ranges consisted of a combination
of preferred and avoided cover types, including
freshwater marsh, cypress swamp, hardwood swamp,
and agricultural land. These cover types accounted
84 | SNOW LEOPARD SURVIVAL STRATEGY