Assessing the importance of protected areas in human-dominated lowland for brown bear (Ursus arctos) winter denning

Abstract

Protected areas are often designed with conservation focus on rare species. However, provision of essential areas for other species is crucial for maintenance of overall biodiversity. The brown bear (Ursus arctos), throughout most of its present distribution area, helps to maintain diverse ecosystems through trophic effects. As with other hibernating mammals, undisturbed wintering areas are a highly important resource for bears. In lowland areas containing intensively managed forests, undisturbed winter dens might largely be confined to protected areas. Here, we assess the importance of protected areas for bear winter denning in a forested landscape. We employed maximum entropy modelling and data of 80 bear winter den locations in a 39,000 km2 area of mainland Estonia to evaluate areas suitable for winter denning. We compared the amount of highly suitable wintering areas (suitability index > 0.6) in 22 protected areas with two ring buffers around these areas to assess the relative importance of adjoining areas for bear wintering. The proportion of highly suitable wintering area was significantly lower in protected areas than in nearby ring buffers. Therefore, our results demonstrate that protected areas do not provide much conservation support for denning brown bears, and we recommend focussing attention on managed forests to meet conservation objectives. The results reveal the importance of larger forest areas for brown bear wintering in lowland to avoid constant disturbance.