Characteristics of Asian black bears stripping bark from coniferous trees

• Autorzy: Kitamura F. , Ohnishi N.
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Stripping of conifer tree bark by Asian black bears (Ursus thibetanus) has been observed in parts of Japan. To identify and characterize the bears exhibiting this behavior, we performed a genetic analysis using DNA extracted from the hairs left on damaged trees. We analyzed 219 samples of bear hair collected from damaged trees at 33 sites and 64 tissue samples from captured bears as controls by using ten microsatellite DNA loci, ca. 706 bp of the mitochondrial DNA d-loop region, and the amelogenin locus. Sixteen bears were identified; some of them had damaged trees at more than one site. bark-stripping and the captured bears. Spatial autocorrelation analysis for increasing distance class revealed a significantly positive genetic correlation coefficient within 40 km among the bark-stripping bears (P < 0.05). Relatedness among the bark-stripping bears was higher than among the captured bears when the distance between bears was within 25 km. We concluded that bark-stripping behavior is associated with relatedness.

• Wydawca: -
• Czasopismo: Acta Theriologica
• Rocznik: 2011
• Tom: 56
• Numer: 3
• Opis fizyczny: p.267-273,fig.,ref.

Twórcy

autor

Kitamura F.

• Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

autor

Ohnishi N.

• Tohoku Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Nabeyashiki, Morioka 020-0123, Japan

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Identyfikatory

DOI

10.1007/s13364-011-0030-4