Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27851753›Full record

ArticlePloS one2016

Nature vs. Nurture: Evidence for Social Learning of Conflict Behaviour in Grizzly Bears.

Andrea T Morehouse, Tabitha A Graves, Nate Mikle, Mark S Boyce

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed
5.9field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 106 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. The flexibility of social learning and its conservation implications in mammals and beyond.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Review
  5. Animal culture: conservation in a changing world.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. The ecology of human-carnivore coexistence.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Sociality and Wild Animal Welfare: Future Directions.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2019
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Alaskan brown bears (Ecology and evolution · 2018
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Andrea T MorehouseDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Tabitha A GravesUS Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, West Glacier, Montana, United States of America.
Nate MikleUS Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, West Glacier, Montana, United States of America.
Mark S BoyceDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
University of Alberta · CANorthern Rocky Mountain Science CenterUnited States Geological Survey · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The propensity for a grizzly bear to develop conflict behaviours might be a result of social learning between mothers and cubs, genetic inheritance, or both learning and inheritance. Using non-invasive genetic sampling, we collected grizzly bear hair samples during 2011-2014 across southwestern Alberta, Canada. We targeted private agricultural lands for hair samples at grizzly bear incident sites, defining an incident as an occurrence in which the grizzly bear caused property damage, obtained anthropogenic food, or killed or attempted to kill livestock or pets. We genotyped 213 unique grizzly bears (118 M, 95 F) at 24 microsatellite loci, plus the amelogenin marker for sex. We used the program COLONY to assign parentage. We evaluated 76 mother-offspring relationships and 119 father-offspring relationships. We compared the frequency of problem and non-problem offspring from problem and non-problem parents, excluding dependent offspring from our analysis. Our results support the social learning hypothesis, but not the genetic inheritance hypothesis. Offspring of problem mothers are more likely to be involved in conflict behaviours, while offspring from non-problem mothers are not likely to be involved in incidents or human-bear conflicts themselves (Barnard's test, p = 0.05, 62.5% of offspring from problem mothers were problem bears). There was no evidence that offspring are more likely to be involved in conflict behaviour if their fathers had been problem bears (Barnard's test, p = 0.92, 29.6% of offspring from problem fathers were problem bears). For the mother-offspring relationships evaluated, 30.3% of offspring were identified as problem bears independent of their mother's conflict status. Similarly, 28.6% of offspring were identified as problem bears independent of their father's conflict status. Proactive mitigation to prevent female bears from becoming problem individuals likely will help prevent the perpetuation of conflicts through social learning.

Indexed as

NatureAlbertaAnimalsBehavior, AnimalConflict, PsychologicalFemaleGeographyMaleSocial LearningUrsidae

Identifiers

PMID27851753
PMCPMC5112868
OpenAlexW2551960116

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC0
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.