Certificate - Etheses - Saurashtra University

habitats. In southwestern Alaska, brown bears occupied lower elevations during July
and August, when salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) were available and higher elevations
in September, presumably to feed on berries, ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii),
and caribou (Rangifer tarandus). During the denning period, bears moved to higher
elevations, remained through June and radio-marked females entered the den in mid
October and emerged in mid May (Collins et al., 2005). In southwestern Oshima
peninsula, Hokkaido, movement pattern, home range and habitat use of brown bears
(Ursus arctos yesoensis) were investigated during 1987-1990. The male home range
size was larger than that of females, and lower deciduous natural forest areas such as
beech oak (Fagus crenata) and (Quercus monoglica var. grosseserrata) forest and
maple linden (Acer mono) and (Tilia japonica) forest were intensively used by bears,
but subalpine areas such as sasa birch (Sasa kurilensis or S. senanensis and Betula
ermani) forest and sasa community were rarely used, and food availability could
influence the habitat use by the bears (Mano, 1994). In Central India, habitat use by
sloth bear was determined by availability and seasonal variation in food, shelter and
vegetation cover and the availability of fruiting trees, shrubs densities, water, termites
and ants (Akhtar et al., 2004). A study on sloth bears showed that home-range size
was mainly dependent on food supply (Joshi et al., 1995 and Desai et al., 1997).
Bowman (1999) developed a habitat suitability index (HIS) model for black bears in
Mississipi based on measures of hard and soft mast production and found that soft
mast basal area, hard mast canopy cover and hard mast area of mature trees were the
best indicators of black bear habitat suitability. In addition to mast production data,
factors like canopy closure, horizontal cover and den availability were found
important habitat components for black bears (Landers et al., 1979; Hamilton and
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