Data from: Photos provide information on age, but not kinship, of Andean bear

We also show that similarity among the bears’ natural markings, as perceived by humans, is not associated with pedigree kinship among the bears (R2 < 0.001, N = 1,043, p = 0.499). Thus, researchers may use photos of wild Andean bears to estimate the ages of young cubs and older adults, but not to infer their kinship. Given that camera trap photos are one of the most readily available sources of information on large cryptic mammals, we suggest that similar methods be tested for use in other poorly understood species.

Usage notes

Visual estimates of the sizes of Andean bear cubs relative to their mothers This csv file contains data from photos of Andean bear cubs in captivity and in the wild (Cerro Venado, Lambayeque, Peru). VanHornetal15_data1_CubRelativeSize.csv The nose color of known-age captive Andean bears This csv file contains data from photos of captive Andean bears that were used to build and test a method for estimating the bears' ages from their nose color.

VanHornetal15_data2_NoseColor.csv Perceived similarity of the facial markings of captive Andean bears This csv file contains data from an online survey in which participants were asked to rate the perceived similarity of the facial markings of the two captive bears shown in sequential pairs of photos. VanHornetal15_data3_KinshipSimilarity.csv