Université de Sherbrooke
M.Sc. candidate
Supervisor: Fanie Pelletier
Prof Andreas Zedrosser, Telemark University College
Start: 2012-01-01
End: 2014-07-01

Project

Consequences of infanticide on the rate of growth of a brown bear (Ursus arctos) population in Scandinavia
Although population dynamics have been studied for over two hundred years, there is still little known about the quantitative influence of heritable traits, such as behaviour, on population growth. My master's project aims to quantify the effect of infanticide on the rate of growth of a wild population of brown bears in Scandinavia. My project will be done in collaboration with the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project that tracks reproduction and juvenile mortality in two populations of brown bears in Sweden. Bears have been individually marked since 1985 in these populations. Females fitted with GPS or telemetry collars and their cubs are located three times a year: in the spring out of hibernation, in the summer after the breeding season, and in fall before entry into their den. I have 26 years of data on more than 100 marked females and I will add one year of data for the summer of 2012

Keywords

population dynamics, animal behavior, bear