Areas of brown bear habitat and movement in the Russian Far East

Studies on the use of space by brown bear (Ursus arctos) have been conducted in five regions of the Russian Far East: Middle Sikhote-Alin, Southern Kamchatka, Eastern Kamchatka, Central Kamchatka, and Eastern Sakhalin. Telemetry was used to determine the locations and movements of 45 brown bear individuals equipped with radio or GPS collars. Annual habitat of the brown bear on Sikhote-Alin is, on average, 891.3 and 349.9 km2 for adult males and females, respectively. These indicators are larger than those on Kamchatka and Sakhalin: 153.1 km2 for adult bear males and 6.1-27.6 km2 for adult females. Their areas are smaller in spring than in summer and fall. Averaged daily movements of adult females are 1.7, 1.8 and 1.0 km for the Middle Sikhote Alin, Eastern Kamchatka and Eastern Sakhalin, respectively. Males in the Middle Sikhote-Alin move, on average, 3.1 km per day. Tagged bears moved long distances any season except for the denning period. Knowledge of the spatial ecology of the brown bear is important for managing this species populations.