Measuring the cost of risk avoidance in brown bears: Further evidence of positive impacts of ecotourism

Selection of sub-optimal habitats to reduce predation risk incurs energy costs. Risk avoidance reduced daily salmon consumption by females with cubs by more than one third. By associating with people, females with cubs were able to avoid encounters with large, potentially aggressive males, which avoided people in both time and space. Controlled human activity at feeding sites can provide a temporal feeding refuge for vulnerable age/sex classes. This is the first study to quantify the energetic cost of intra-specific risk-avoidance for a large carnivore.