Hunting promotes spatial reorganization and sexually selected infanticide.
Harvest can affect the ecology and evolution of wild species. The removal of key individuals, such as matriarchs or dominant males, can disrupt social structure and exacerbate the impact of hunting on population growth. We do not know, however, how and when the spatiotemporal reorganization takes place after removal and if such changes can be the mechanism that explain a decrease in population growth. Detailed behavioral information from individually monitored brown bears, in a population where hunting increases sexually selected infanticide, revealed that adult males increased their use of home ranges of hunter-killed neighbors in the second year after their death. Use of a hunter-killed male's home range was influenced by the survivor's as well as the hunter-killed male's age, population density, and hunting intensity. Our results emphasize that hunting can have long-term indirect effects which can affect population viability.
Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Demography and Conservation &Centre for Northern Studies, Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, J1K2R1, Canada.
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Leclerc
Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences, and Maritime Sciences, Department of Natural Sciences and Environmental Health, University College of Southeast Norway, N-3800 Bø i Telemark, Norway.
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Frank
Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences, and Maritime Sciences, Department of Natural Sciences and Environmental Health, University College of Southeast Norway, N-3800 Bø i Telemark, Norway.|Department of Integrative Biology, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Gregor Mendel Str. 33, A - 1180 Vienna, Austria.
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Zedrosser
Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, PO Box 5003, NO - 1432 Ås, Norway.|Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway.
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Swenson
Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Demography and Conservation &Centre for Northern Studies, Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, J1K2R1, Canada.
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Pelletier
D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D013177:Sports; D001503:Ursidae / Q000502:physiology*