Affiliation:
1. Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, N10 W5 Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0810, Japan.
2. Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi 1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
Abstract
Reforestation, which converts abandoned farmland back into forestland by planting woody species, can provide habitat for wildlife, including the brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758). In the Shiretoko World Heritage site, northern Japan, where brown bears occur at high density, conifers have been planted since the 1970s to reforest abandoned farmland. In this area, brown bears were first observed digging for cicada Lyristes bihamatus Motschulsky, 1861 = Auritibicen bihamatus (Motschulsky, 1861) nymphs from 2000. Our preliminary observations suggested that the emergence of digging behavior might be associated with reforestation. We examined whether reforestation provided a foraging habitat for brown bears. We found that digging occurred only within the restored conifer forests, but not within the natural forest. The densities of cicada nymphs in the restored forests were higher than in the natural forest. These results indicate that the reforestation of abandoned farmland provides a foraging habitat for brown bears by increasing the availability of cicada nymphs in the Shiretoko World Heritage site.
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Subject
Animal Science and Zoology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
4 articles.
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