A habitat assessment tool for the Louisiana black bear
Dates
Start Date
2009-10
Acquisition
2011-09
Citation
Murrow, J.L., J.D. Clark, S. Flanagan, C. Thatcher. 2013. A tool for estimating effects of land-use changes on Louisiana black bear habitat. Final report to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services Field Office, Lafayette, LA.
Summary
The objectives of this SSP project were to develop a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based habitat model for the state of Louisiana and to develop a tool for evaluating the potential effects of various land-use changes on Louisiana black bears. A habitat model previously developed to assess habitat impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the coastal black bears in Louisiana (Murrow et al. 2012) was used as the starting point of the analysis for this study. That dataset was augmented with telemetry locations collected from 1993 to 2010 to extend and modify the original coastal model which was based on the Mahalanobis distance (D2) statistic. The goal was to then use that model to develop an estimator and user-friendly interface [...]
Summary
The objectives of this SSP project were to develop a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based habitat model for the state of Louisiana and to develop a tool for evaluating the potential effects of various land-use changes on Louisiana black bears. A habitat model previously developed to assess habitat impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the coastal black bears in Louisiana (Murrow et al. 2012) was used as the starting point of the analysis for this study. That dataset was augmented with telemetry locations collected from 1993 to 2010 to extend and modify the original coastal model which was based on the Mahalanobis distance (D2) statistic. The goal was to then use that model to develop an estimator and user-friendly interface based on ArcMap(Trademark) 10.1 software for recalculating relative habitat gain or loss when landscape changes occur (e.g., construction of roads, urbanization, and habitat restoration).
The code and toolkit are available from Dr. Jennifer Murrow at wildlife@umd.edu
