Socially learned foraging behaviour in wild black bears, Ursus americanus

Abstract

To date, research on social learning has been limited mainly to only a few taxa in captive or seminatural settings. We undertook a quantitative study of social learning in free-ranging black bears at Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, U.S.A. from 1995 to 2006. We tested the hypothesis that food-conditioned foraging behaviour (foraging on human food in developed areas) by some bears is transmitted vertically from sows to cubs. Food conditioning in young bears was strongly related to their rearing conditions. Nine wild sows reared 20 cubs in the wild, with 18 (90%) of the cubs remaining wild by the end of their second year. By contrast, of 79 cubs reared by food-conditioned mothers, 31 were reared in the wild and 48 were reared on anthropogenic food sources. Eighty-four per cent (26/31) of those reared in the wild foraged in the wild as independents, and 81% (39/48) of those reared on anthropogenic food continued to exploit this resource later in life. The outcome of the cubs was determined more by where the cubs were reared than by whether the sow was food conditioned.