Fig 1.
Location of the study area (346 km2; in light grey) within the current distribution of the brown bear in the Cantabrian Mountains (dark grey; according to Naves et al. 2003 [30]).
Coordinates of centroid to the study area: 43o 0.370’ N, 6o 38.534’ W.
Fig 2.
In the Cantabrian Mountains, apiaries have traditionally been protected by stonewalls called ‘cortines’ or ‘albarizas’ (a; picture: J. Naves).
In recent times, the use of this ancient and traditional prevention method to deter bears has been lost in many areas; although some apiaries still have rock walls, several of them only use electric fences (b; picture: J. Naves) or combine both approaches (c; picture: A. Ordiz). Picture d (picture: A. Ramos, Principado de Asturias) shows the incursion of a brown bear in an apiary in the study area.
Table 1.
Variables recorded in the study of brown bear damages to apiaries in the Cantabrian Mountains, Spain.
Fig 3.
Locations of damaged and undamaged apiaries in the study area in 2006–2008.
For damaged apiaries, the number of damaged beehives is also shown.
Table 2.
Descriptive statistics of the main variables recorded in the study.
Fig 4.
Relationship between (a) the probability of bear damage to an apiary and the number of damaged beehives in the apiary in the previous year and, (b) the intensity of the attack, defined by the number of damaged beehives, and forest cover within a 2000 m radius. Plots are based on the model-averaged parameters (Table 4) that explained the probability and intensity of damage to apiaries by brown bears in the Cantabrian Mountains, Spain. Other variables not represented here were fixed to their mean values and for the year 2007.
Table 3.
Model-averaged coefficients and relative importance values (RIV) for the variables included in the selected models to analyze the probability of damage on apiaries by brown bears, and the intensity of damage, in the Cantabrian Mountains, Spain.
The selected models with ΔAICc<2 that we used for model averaging can be seen in S2 Table. The first model only included spatial variables, and the second model included spatial and temporal variables. In the second model, analyses were restricted to 2007 and 2008 to be able to include variables describing damages in the previous year.
Table 4.
Model-averaged coefficients and relative importance values (RIV) for the variables included in the selected models to analyze the probability of damage on apiaries by brown bears, and the intensity of damage, in the Cantabrian Mountains, Spain.
This model included spatial-, temporal-, environmental-, and apiary-related factors. See S2 Table for further information on the different variables and the selected models with ΔAICc<2 that we used for model averaging). This analysis was restricted to visited apiaries and to 2007 and 2008, to be able to include variables describing damages in the previous year.