Conservation corridors for carnivores: Integrating pattern and process in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Habitat loss, fragmentation, and urbanization threaten wide-ranging and area-sensitive large carnivores like grizzly bears (Ursus arctos L.) and cougars (Puma concolor L.). Within reserve networks, corridors are rarely designed to incorporate large carnivore resource selection and movement processes. I examine and model resource selection and movement based on data from Global Positioning System (GPS) radiocollared grizzly bears and cougars in Canmore and Crowsnest in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Canada. I examined three questions fundamental to corridor planning for large carnivores: (1) where are large carnivores more likely to occur?; (2) what landscape features promote their movements?; and, (3) how do these landscape features affect large carnivore movements?;Step selection function (SSF) models suggested movement of cougars occurred closer to paved roads and forest cover throughout the year and they avoided crossing paved roads in the non-winter season. During the berry season, movement of grizzly bears in Canmore and Crowsnest occurred closer to paved roads and shrubs. No large carnivore paths crossed slopes > 45 degrees. Patterns of selection and avoidance can be used to provide species- and landscape-specific guidelines for where movement might occur (sensur functional connectivity). I combined SSF results with analyses of step length to show that grizzly bears and cougars moved faster near paved roads during the berry and winter seasons, respectively. Conversely, cougars in Canmore and grizzly bears in both landscapes moved more slowly near forest and shrubs during the winter and berry seasons, respectively.;Compared to conventional corridor designs based on perceived structural connectedness and habitat quality, my study illustrates how a diverse, empirically based modelling approach can be used to incorporate large carnivore behavioural processes more explicitly into corridor identification and design.;Resource selection function (RSF) models suggested grizzly bears were more likely to occur in areas with high greenness values, a variable associated with bear forage. Cougars were more likely to occur in areas with low road density in Canmore during non-winter and in rugged terrain in Crowsnest Pass throughout the year. I developed least-cost paths based on the inverse of RSFs to identify potential corridors that might support movement of both species between patches of high RSF value.