DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m905qfv5w
title: Locations of black bear (Ursus americanus) reproduction in Nevada from camera-trap data

description: Understanding factors creating species range boundaries is a fundamental
 goal of ecology and biogeography. American black bears recolonized the
 western Great Basin from the Sierra Nevada in the late 1900s but this
 expansion has not proceeded further into the Great Basin despite the
 presence of suitable habitat. We deployed 100 camera traps across the
 occupied range of black bears in the U.S. state of Nevada and tracked bear
 detections across 3 years. A scent lure was applied in camera trap
 viewsheds to increase bear detections. We classified detections of bear
 cubs separately from detections of only adult bears, to serve as an
 indicator of black bear reproduction occurring at sites. Data are provided
 in the format necessary for a analysis with multistate occupancy model.
 Analysis of these data revealed low incidence of reproduction at the
 periphery of black bear range in the western Great Basin, which likely
 contributes to range boundary formation.
description: Data was collected with camera traps at 100 locations in
 Northwestern Nevada, spaced approximately 7 km apart. A scent lure was
 applied in the viewshed of the camera to increase the detection of black
 bears. Black bear detections were grouped into 30-day periods that
 indicated whether black bears were or were not detected at a site during a
 given time period. We separated out cub detections as indicators of black
 bears reproducing in the vicinity of a site. The black bear hibernation
 period (Dec-Feb) was excluded from detection histories. Locations were
 surveyed for 3 years (2018-2020).
description: The data is provided as an RData object with all data required to
 run a multistate occupancy model included in the object. The file can be
 read using the load function in program R.
description: # Locations of black bear (Ursus americanus) reproduction in Nevada from
 camera-trap data Camera trapping data set for American black bears in
 northwestern Nevada from 100 sites sampled across three years, with
 detections, indicated separate from adult bear detections. ## Description
 of the Data and file structure Data is provided as a named list in R * y =
 3-dimensional array of black bear detection-nondetection data. 300 rows
 for each site of 100 sites, 9 columns for each secondary sampling week
 within seasons. The third dimension is years (3).1 = no bears detected, 2
 = adult bear detected, 3 = cub(s) detected. * site = unique site
 identifier, used to specify random effect in multistate occupancy model. *
 conifer = proportion of conifer forest and woodland within a 5km radius of
 sites. Data are centered and scaled. * region = binary ecoregion covariate
 indicating is site was located in northwestern Forested * nsite = number
 of sites samples (100) * nsurveys = number of secondary sampling periods
 each year (9) * nyears = number of years (3) * Missing data code = NA ##
 Sharing/access Information Links to other publicly accessible locations of
 the data: Was data derived from another source? Yes, conifer variable
 (link 1) and ecoregion variable (link 2) If yes, list source(s): USDA/DOI
 LANDFIRE 2016 data set (https://www.landfire.gov/evt.php), US EPA North
 American Ecoregion Level I data set
 (https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america)