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Predicted grizzly bear habitat use in Western Montana: spatial data

Metadata Updated: October 28, 2023

Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) habitat use maps delineate predicted habitat use for grizzly bears around federally designated recovery zones in and near western Montana. These raster data are the official data release for Sells et al. (2022), “Grizzly Bear Habitat Selection Across the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem” and Sells et al. (2023), “Grizzly bear movement models predict habitat use for nearby populations.” In summary, to better understand habitat selection by grizzly bears, Sells et al. (2022) developed and validated individual-based integrated step-selection functions (iSSFs) for 65 grizzly bears monitored in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE; including 19 males and 46 females). Step-selection functions, developed from GPS location data, are highly versatile models that can be used to study and predict habitat selection, movement corridors, dispersal, and human-wildlife interactions. Sells et al. (2022)’s models involved variables that could be measured across a large landscape and were previously identified as important to habitat selection by this generalist omnivore. External validation with data omitted from model development demonstrated that the models were highly predictive of habitat use within the NCDE. Sells et al. (2023) built on Sells et al. (2022) as a second phase of the study. In this paper, we aimed to evaluate the transferability of the models to a larger landscape spanning multiple ecoregions. We simulated movements within the Selkirk (SE), Cabinet-Yaak (CYE), and Greater Yellowstone (GYE) Ecosystems using the 65 models Sells et al. (2022) developed from NCDE bears, summarized results to estimate relative habitat selection, and assessed model transferability over space and time using location data for bears in the SE, CYE, and GYE. Because the NCDE models can be accurately transferred to nearby populations, this demonstrates reliability of applying the models to predict habitat use for areas with few or no data, including potential connectivity pathways between populations or in uninhabited areas like the North Cascade (NCE) or Bitterroot Ecosystems (BE). In these datasets, all results are summarized and quantile binned as classes 1 (lowest relative predicted use) - 10 (highest relative predicted use) for each recovery zone. Each class is represented by 10% of each recovery zone. However, because the NCDE-CYE and SE-CYE slightly overlap, we averaged and rounded to the nearest integer at cells of overlap. The maps can be clipped down as desired to view details of specific areas. (Note: subsetting the maps will mean that the classes no longer each represent 10% of the landscape, as this binning was done independently for the NCDE, SE, CYE, and GYE.) Our predictive maps can facilitate on-the-ground application of this research for prioritizing habitat conservation, human-bear conflict mitigation, and transportation planning.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date July 26, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 28, 2023

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 26, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 28, 2023
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/776047f53a7e6a9db23a7cd8feda20c4
Identifier USGS:6491b333d34ef77fcb004438
Data Last Modified 20230720
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 434632f5-3d25-4783-8a08-7b80d92d31c3
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -118.2129,42.9403,-107.7539,49.0
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b3f8c1fc085b6d3df6742dd7688b4bee48fb564ea6e666c63aa7f70bb8e15217
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -118.2129, 42.9403, -118.2129, 49.0, -107.7539, 49.0, -107.7539, 42.9403, -118.2129, 42.9403}

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