Abstract
Abstract Little is known about the effects of wildfire on black bears (Ursus americanus). Following a wildfire in Arizona, we hypothesized that the local black bear population would decline due to direct mortality or reductions in food and cover. We also hypothesized that remaining bears would have larger home ranges than bears in unburned areas because of decreased food resources and cover. To test our hypotheses, we studied short-term effects of a wildfire on black bear demographics in the Mazatzal Mountains, central Arizona, from 1997–2000 and compared these parameters to those in an unburned area. We also compared density estimates, survival, cub production and survival, and home-range sizes in the same area prefire (1973–1978) to postfire (1997–2000). We captured 31 adult bears within the burn perimeter on Four Peaks and 15 on unburned Mt. Ord during 1997–2000. Adult sex ratio within the burn perimeter on Four Peaks was more skewed toward males (4 M:1 F) than in the unburned area on Mt. Ord (1.7 M:1 ...
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