Open Collections

Van Horn, Russell C.; Zug, Becky; Appleton, Robyn D.; Velez-Liendo, Ximena; Paisley, Susanna L.; LaCombe, Corrin; Paisley, Susanna

<b>Abstract</b><br/>Using photos of captive Andean bears of known age and pedigree, and photos of wild Andean bear cubs <6 months old, we evaluated the degree to which visual information may be used to estimate bears’ ages and assess their kinship. We demonstrate that the ages of Andean bear cubs ≤6 months old may be estimated from their size relative to their mothers with an average error of <0.01 ± 13.2 days (SD; n = 14), and that ages of adults ≥10 years old may be estimated from the proportion of their nose that is pink with an average error of <0.01 ± 3.5 years (n = 41). We also show that similarity among the bears’ natural markings, as perceived by humans, is not associated with pedigree kinship among the bears (R2 < 0.001, N = 1,043, p = 0.499). Thus, researchers may use photos of wild Andean bears to estimate the ages of young cubs and older adults, but not to infer their kinship. Given that camera trap photos are one of the most readily available sources of information on large cryptic mammals, we suggest that similar methods be tested for use in other poorly understood species.; <b>Usage notes</b><br /><div class="o-metadata__file-usage-entry"><h4 class="o-heading__level3-file-title">Visual estimates of the sizes of Andean bear cubs relative to their mothers</h4><div class="o-metadata__file-description">This csv file contains data from photos of Andean bear cubs in captivity and in the wild (Cerro Venado, Lambayeque, Peru).</div><div class="o-metadata__file-name">VanHornetal15_data1_CubRelativeSize.csv</br></div><div class="o-metadata__file-name"></div></div><div class="o-metadata__file-usage-entry"><h4 class="o-heading__level3-file-title">The nose color of known-age captive Andean bears</h4><div class="o-metadata__file-description">This csv file contains data from photos of captive Andean bears that were used to build and test a method for estimating the bears' ages from their nose color.</div><div class="o-metadata__file-name">VanHornetal15_data2_NoseColor.csv</br></div><div class="o-metadata__file-name"></div></div><div class="o-metadata__file-usage-entry"><h4 class="o-heading__level3-file-title">Perceived similarity of the facial markings of captive Andean bears</h4><div class="o-metadata__file-description">This csv file contains data from an online survey in which participants were asked to rate the perceived similarity of the facial markings of the two captive bears shown in sequential pairs of photos.</div><div class="o-metadata__file-name">VanHornetal15_data3_KinshipSimilarity.csv</br></div><div class="o-metadata__file-name"></div></div>

Dataset

2020-06-24

CC0 1.0

https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/CSKSTQ

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0