Predicted Habitat Use for Reintroduced Grizzly Bears in the Transboundary North Cascades Ecosystem

This data release provides raster datasets of relative predicted habitat use for grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) reintroduced to the transboundary North Cascades Ecosystem (NCE) of Washington State (United States) and British Columbia (Canada). The datasets represent predicted post-release habitat use by a small founding group of translocated grizzly bears during the early stages of recovery. Predicted habitat maps were generated using individual-based movement simulations parameterized with integrated step selection functions developed for grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, a likely source population for future translocations. Model transferability was evaluated using GPS collar data from nearby Canadian populations, and an elevation-based calibration was applied to reduce extrapolation into low-elevation environments not represented in the training data. This release includes uncalibrated (“no calibration”) and elevation-calibrated predicted habitat maps for the NCE, provided for both sexes combined and separately by sex. All datasets are summarized as raster layers of relative predicted habitat use, binned into ten equal-area quantile classes (1 = lowest, 10 = highest). These spatial data products are intended to support early-stage recovery planning, including evaluation of potential release areas and anticipation of zones where human–bear interactions may be more likely.