Abstract
Range shifts among wildlife can occur rapidly and impose cascading ecological, economic, and cultural consequences. However, occurrence data used to define distributional limits derived from scientific approaches are often outdated for wide ranging and elusive species, especially in remote environments. Accordingly, our aim was to amalgamate indigenous and western scientific evidence of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) records and detail a potential range shift on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. In addition, we test the hypothesis that data from each method yield similar results, as well as illustrate the complementary nature of this coupled approach. Combining information from traditional and local ecological knowledge (TEK/LEK) interviews with remote camera, genetic, and hunting data revealed that grizzly bears are now present on 10 islands outside their current management boundary. LEK interview data suggested this expansion has accelerated over the last 10 years. Both approaches provided complementary details and primarily affirmed one another: all islands with scientific evidence for occupation had consistent TEK/LEK evidence. Moreover, our complementary methods approach enabled a more spatially and temporally detailed account than either method would have afforded alone. In many cases, knowledge already held by local indigenous people could provide timely and inexpensive data about changing ecological processes. However, verifying the accuracy of scientific and experiential knowledge by pairing sources at the same spatial scale allows for increased confidence and detail. A similarly coupled approach may be useful across taxa in many regions.
Highlights
Distributions of organisms are shaped and re-shaped over geological and ecological timescales
We identified 149 grizzly bear observations across 15 major islands, including 10 islands outside the current grizzly bear management boundary (Figure 1a, Table 1)
Local ecological knowledge (LEK) yielded the largest number of data points relative to other sources, with 110 observations across 15 major islands (Table 1 & 2)
Summary
Distributions of organisms are shaped and re-shaped over geological and ecological timescales. Structured by a suite of natural processes and their interactions, changes to species distributions (hereafter ‘range shifts’), can be driven by abiotic factors (e.g., CO2 enrichment, nitrogen deposition, climate; [1]), biotic processes (e.g., competition and facilitation [2]), and dispersal capability [3,4]. Distributional shifts have often been rapid and associated with human-caused drivers. The increased pace of range shifts caused by humans can impose ecological effects on other species, communities, and ecosystems by exposing recipients to novel predation pressure, competition, and diseases [11]. The rapid, human-aided range expansion of the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) to Guam decimated native bird populations, which in turn reduced the reproductive success of vertebrate-pollinated native plant species [12]
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