Abstract
ABSTRACT: Culture is widely accepted as an important social factor
present across a wide range of species. Bears have a culture as defined
as behavioral traditions inherited though social learning usually from
mothers to offspring. Successful bear cultures can enhance fitness and
resource exploitation benefits. In contrast, some bear cultures related
to response to humans and human-related foods can be maladaptive and
result in reduced fitness and direct mortality. In environments with
minimal human influence most bear culture has evolved over generations
to be beneficial and well adapted to enhance fitness. However, most
bears across the world do not live in areas with minimal human influence
and in these areas, bear culture is often changed by bear interactions
with humans, usually to the detriment of bear survival. We highlight the
importance of identifying unique bear cultural traits that allow
efficient use of local resources and the value of careful management to
preserve these adaptive cultural behaviors. It is also important to
select against maladaptive cultural behaviors that are usually related
to humans inorder to reduce human-bear conflicts and high bear
mortality. We use examples from Yellowstone National Park to demonstrate
how long-term management to reduce maladaptive bear cultures related to
humans has resulted in healthy bear populations and a low level of
human-bear conflict in spite of a high number of Park visitors in close
association with bears.