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5 January 2024 Escaping heat and anthropogenic pressures? Asiatic black bear denning behavior in its westernmost global range
Morteza Arianejad, Taher Ghadirian, Danial Nayeri, Arash Ghoddousi
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Abstract

The range of the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) extends in its western limits to southeastern Iran where the species lives in arid mountainous landscapes in low densities. A better understanding of the adaptations of this threatened subspecies, the Baluchistan black bear (U. t. gedrosianus), to these harsh environmental conditions is necessary to devise conservation action. Here, we investigated the use and characteristics of Asiatic black bear dens in Hormozgan Province, one of the critical components of its life cycle. We detected 12 dens in caves and monitored them from 2012 to 2021 using camera traps (1,972 trap-nights). We obtained 138 bear detections, together with detections of 8 other wildlife species, in 12 dens. Our findings show that bears use dens as heat and probably anthropogenic refugia. Given the importance of dens for the Asiatic black bear, we suggest protecting these areas from human disturbances and expanding efforts to other areas with bear dens.

Morteza Arianejad, Taher Ghadirian, Danial Nayeri, and Arash Ghoddousi "Escaping heat and anthropogenic pressures? Asiatic black bear denning behavior in its westernmost global range," Ursus 2023(34e12), 1-8, (5 January 2024). https://doi.org/10.2192/URSUS-D-23-00005
Received: 10 March 2023; Accepted: 17 August 2023; Published: 5 January 2024
KEYWORDS
anthropogenic refugia
Baluchistan black bear
den ecology
den site selection
denning behavior
heat refugia
Hormozgan
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