Effects of bear endozoochory on germination and dispersal of huckleberry in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

by Aza Fynley Kuijt, Cole Burton, Clayton T. Lamb

Berries are a staple of bear diets during late summer and fall in the southern Rocky Mountains, enabling bears to build up fat reserves and prepare to enter torpor during winter. In turn, bears can benefit fruiting shrubs through dispersal of their seeds. Bears are highly mobile species and seed passage through their guts (endozoochory) can influence seed germination in three ways: deinhibition (removal of germination inhibiting compounds), scarification (mechanical or chemical alteration) and fertilization (enhancement of germination from increased nutrients). We conducted a germination experiment to assess the ways each mechanism of bear endozoochory affects germination success of huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum.) in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains. The potential for bears to act as long-distance seed dispersers was also investigated, using a combination of available literature on bear gut retention times and movement data of 74 GPS radio-collared grizzly bears. Deinhibition had a positive significant impact (28.5% germination for the Seeds from Berry treatment compared to 0.2% for Whole Berry at 60 days), while scarification and fertilization did not have detectable positive effects on huckleberry germination success. These results suggest that the removing germination-inhibiting compounds in berry pulp is the primary mechanism through which endozoochory can increase germination in huckleberry seed. We estimated that 50% of the seeds defecated by bears in the region are dispersed 1.1 km away from feeding places (and up to 7 km). The surfaces covered by the seed shadow was up to 149.6 km², demonstrating that bears can act as effective vectors of seeds over long distances. Endozoochory bolsters the germination success of seeds from fruiting shrubs, and enables seeds to spread to new locations using bears as dispersal agents. Development, resource extraction, and climate change may disrupt the beneficial relationship between bears and huckleberries, where huckleberries help bears gain fat, and bears help spread huckleberry seeds—a process that may become increasingly important as climate change alters habitats.