Determining the Importance of Grizzly Bear Predation on Southern Mountain Caribou Populations

The goal of this project is to determine to what extent grizzly bear predation might be influencing caribou populations in west-central Alberta. We use existing datasets  supplemented with additional data gathered to address this topic, and also investigate new techniques to measure and monitor grizzly bear predation levels on caribou populations.
We use multiple data sources including grizzly bear GPS locations, kill site investigations, and stable isotopes from existing and newly acquired data collected as part of this project to meet the following objectives:

1. Use currently available GPS locations of collared caribou and grizzly bears to quantify the spatiotemporal overlap in habitat use and movements of these species in relation to anthropogenic features and other habitat characteristics.
2. Determine the probability of caribou mortality by grizzly bears and assess variation with respect to gender, age class, and the reproductive status of bears, as well as in relation to seasonality, and landscape characteristics associated with anthropogenic disturbance and habitat type.
3. Implement feeding trials with captive grizzly bears to develop and validate stable isotope techniques to quantify caribou within the diet of grizzly bears from hair.