Michael D. Jones

Spatial Characteristics of Black Bears and Bear Hunters in Garrett County, Maryland

Harvest vulnerability is an important consideration for the proper management of a black bear population. To assess harvest vulnerability, we must first understand black bear and bear hunter spatial characteristics. Global positioning system (GPS) technology allows us to record this information with more accuracy and efficiency than previous methods used by researchers. We used GPS and a geographic information system (GIS) to examine the spatial characteristics of bears and bear hunters in Garrett County, Maryland during the 2005-2007 bear hunting seasons. We fitted 94 hunters and 8...