Integrating spatial and behavioral data provides comprehensive assessment of grizzly bear-ecotourism coexistence in Nuxalk Territory

Behavioral ecologists frequently focus on a single modality of wildlife response to disturbance, which can limit inference because different antipredator responses reflect various aspects of predation risk management. We investigated intrapopulation variation in tolerance to human-associated risk within a grizzly bear-ecotourism system in Nuxalk Territory, considering behavior results in tandem with spatial data from genetically tagged individuals. Whereas our behavioral analysis revealed no effects of ecotourism on alertness, our central measure of tolerance, we observed variation in space-use among individuals (n = 80). Only 12, primarily females (n = 10), showed preference for the area of highest ecotourism activity; others showed little to no use of the area, despite its close proximity and high resource abundance. These patterns suggest that behavioral data may have been biased towards individuals tolerant enough to coexist with ecotourism. Examining behavior of ostensibly tolerant ecotourism individuals alone would have overlooked intrapopulation variation in space-use at broader spatial scales. A comprehensive assessment that simultaneously draws upon both spatial and behavioral dimensions may therefore provide richer insight into coexistence than either lens alone. More broadly, coexistence dynamics in this and other systems might exclude some individuals within populations that are not tolerant enough to participate.