Changing grizzly bear space use and functional connectivity in response to human disturbance in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains

Abstract Understanding wildlife responses to human disturbance is essential for developing effective conservation and management strategies. Grizzly bears in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains face increasing habitat alteration from roads, forest harvest, human settlements, and mining, which can alter the way animals move through the landscape. Deleterious effects on genetic exchange, demographic connectivity, and access to key resources can occur if movements are dramatically altered. We used integrated step‐selection functions (iSSF) to model movement and habitat selection for 109 GPS‐collared grizzly bears across an 85,000 km 2 multi‐use landscape in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta. We then simulated individual grizzly bear movements from fitted iSSFs to predict changes in population‐level space use and functional connectivity under the following scenarios:…