Date Thesis Awarded

5-2009

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Mathematics

Advisor

Sarah Day

Committee Members

Daniel A. Cristol

Tanujit Dey

Junping Shi

Abstract

In 1999 the Virginia Department of Game and Inland fisheries developed a long term plan to manage the black bear population in Virginia; in 2001, the VDGIF published a 10 year management plan. Though the plan contained many ideas to manage the bear population - including fertility control, kill permits, regulated hunting, etc., the management proposal lacks any concrete insight as to the ramifications of these options. The models included in this paper aim to analyze the population dynamics of the Black Bear population in Virginia by using a non-linear discrete model which separates bears not only by age, but also by gender. Analysis on the models provide a great deal of insight as to the dynamics of the Black Bears. Additionally, initial data and model simulations suggest that the preservation of the male population is an important factor in maintaining the Black Bear species due to their increased harvest rates, something which is not accounted for in most of the literature concerning the preservation of the Black Bears.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Comments

Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.

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