| Title: | Can hunting data be used to estimate unbiased population parameters? A case study on brown bears |
| Author(s): | Leclerc M; Van de Walle J; Zedrosser A; Swenson JE; Pelletier F; |
| Address: | "Departement de biologie & Centre for Northern Studies, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada martin.leclerc2@usherbrooke.ca. Departement de biologie & Centre for Northern Studies, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Department of Environmental and Health Studies, University College of Southeast Norway, Bo, Norway Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, As, Norway Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim, Norway" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1744-957X (Electronic) 1744-9561 (Print) 1744-9561 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Quantifying temporal changes in harvested populations is critical for applied and fundamental research. Unbiased data are required to detect true changes in phenotypic distribution or population size. Because of the difficulty of collecting detailed individual data from wild populations, data from hunting records are often used. Hunting records, however, may not represent a random sample of a population. We aimed to detect and quantify potential bias in hunting records. We compared data from a long-term monitoring project with hunting records of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Sweden and investigated temporal trends (1996-2013) in the ratio of yearlings to adult females, yearling mass and adult female mass. Data from hunting records underestimated the decline in yearling and adult female mass over time, most likely owing to the legal protection of family groups from hunting, but reflected changes in the ratio of yearlings to adult females more reliably. Although hunting data can be reliable to approximate population abundance in some circumstances, hunting data can represent a biased sample of a population and should be used with caution in management and conservation decisions" |
| Keywords: | Age Factors Animals Body Weight Conservation of Natural Resources Female Population Density Sweden Ursidae/*physiology Ursus arctos harvest hunting regulation temporal trends; |
| Notes: | "MedlineLeclerc, Martin Van de Walle, Joanie Zedrosser, Andreas Swenson, Jon E Pelletier, Fanie eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2016/06/16 Biol Lett. 2016 Jun; 12(6):20160197. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0197" |
