Exurban land use facilitates human-black bear conflicts

Abstract

The distribution and arrangement of habitats and human use areas are important to understanding where and why conflicts with wildlife occur; such data may inform proactive management activities to minimize conflicts. Black bear (Ursus americanus) abundance and the number of human-black bear conflicts are increasing in the northeast United States, particularly in developed areas. We applied a spatial modeling approach to identify landscape variables associated with the spatial intensity of human-black bear conflicts in Connecticut, and predicted where conflicts are most likely in the future. Percent forest cover within 1 km2 and the proportion of such forest classified as edge habitat were the most important factors associated with the location of conflicts. We attribute this result to Connecticut's exurban landscape, typical of New England, in which housing and natural land cover are extensively interspersed, as opposed to housing fragmenting natural land cover. This finding can inform town planners and developers in designing future housing to proactively minimize human-black bear conflicts. We also identified areas at high risk for conflict. The extent of these areas will help determine the scale of bear management units within which different management approaches are applied.