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All Research Articles
He glides with purpose striding smoothly from one edge of the ski trail to the other. His pace is faster than usual - less food more travel. His long neck, like a reversed rudder, angles through the metre-high foliage, eyes alert to colour. With no obvious effort he quickly nibbles a few berries, floppy lips and a protruding tongue finishing one stem while instantly rebounding to an adjacent stem for more. Nothing there. Keep going... keep looking.
He pushes away from the patch and plows through a cluster of regenerating mountain hemlock conifers. Letting the tips brush his underside, he signs his presence for the day.
EDMONTON - Of all the places to meet a celebrity, the backwoods of Sweden might seem to be among the least likely.
That's what Gordon Stenhouse thought when he travelled to the Scandinavian wilderness in April to conduct research on grizzly bears.
One day, on a field trip, Stenhouse's camp received a surprise visitor. The new arrival did not have brown fur, a long snout and dark eyes, but instead came with blond hair, blue eyes and a face recognizable from countless broadcasts of Hockey Night in Canada.
WHITEFISH - Forget Capistrano's swallows. Pay no attention to those salmon returning home from the ocean. Monarch butterflies? Yeah, right.
When it comes to the mystery of migration, those critters have got nothing on a pair of Montana grizzly bears born and raised north of Whitefish.
Wayne Kasworm, a bear biologist working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, penned the bears in big metal traps, carted them across whole mountain ranges and dropped them off deep in a far-flung wilderness.
A Kaslo-based wildlife biologist is asking the B.C. government to look at some new data when it decides whether it will approve the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort.
In the works for nearly two decades, the $45 million ski resort development would be built in the Jumbo Valley in the Purcell Mountains. The province is currently deciding whether to create a resort municipality at the proposed development site.
Lily the Internet-famous black bear near Ely still is with her cub, Hope, but also might be pregnant again.
Researchers Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield say Lily is showing signs of being pregnant, including swollen reproductive organs and recently hanging around male bears.
It’s unusual for a sow black bear to give birth two years in a row, but Lily and Hope’s separation for many days earlier this summer might have spurred her body to go into estrus again.
A grizzly bear population study released Tuesday afternoon by Mines Management concludes that there are “very likely significantly more grizzly bears in the Cabinet Mountains than has been previously reported.”
That strong statement no doubt will catch the eye of the region’s wildlife biologists. If the report proves true, it would indicate that grizzly bear recovery efforts in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem have worked.
'Taste aversion' could deter predators from eating cows, sheep: biologist
Saskatchewan has a serious problem with predators eating livestock, but what if ... they simply didn't feel like eating?
"Taste aversion" could be the answer to making wolves and coyotes leave cows and sheep alone, says John Polson, a freelance wildlife biologist and beekeeper.
NEAR LEAVENWORTH, Wash. - Researchers Paula MacKay and Rob Long are on their way back into the deep woods in the Icicle Creek Canyon. They were here two weeks ago, stretching a strand of barbed wire between trees surrounding a pile of sticks covered in a putrid blend of blood and chicken guts. They hope curious bears will go to investigate and leave behind a strand of hair on one of the barbs.
University of Alberta researchers are getting a bear's eye view to learn about grizzlies -- a threatened species in the province.
New high-tech collars have been placed on bears, featuring cams and GPS, to take a colour photo every 15 minutes and track the animals’ location every hour.
Citing the recent off-duty action of one of its officers, the Anchorage Police Department on Monday urged the public to avoid zapping bears with Tasers unless life or property is in peril.
The statement comes after police Lt. Dave Parker used a Taser on July 22 to discourage a black bear lured to a fish fryer at Parker's Hillside home. When the incident was publicized the next day, it stirred up strong reaction pro and con.
An investigation into the death of a 70-year-old hiker who was mauled by a grizzly bear near Yellowstone National Park last month provides some important insight into what happened and how future attacks may be avoided.
While the death was a tragic accident, the report by the investigation team recommends some changes in policy by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team that make sense.
PULLMAN, Wash. - Grizzly bears love pastries, can be 50 percent body fat and spend nearly half the year sleeping.
Yet the hibernating bears don't suffer heart attacks, have no hardening of the arteries, no fatty deposits or any circulation issues, said Charles Robbins, director of the Washington State University bear research center.
Jul 15, 2010 — Media Coverage: Stay Alert
Whistler Mountain resident mother black bear Brownie with one of two six-month-old cubs grazing up through a clover patch. Six females have produced 11 cubs in the ski area with a 100 per cent survival rate so far.
An Ely black bear and her cub have reunited after 1-1/2 months apart.
Researchers Sue Mansfield and Lynn Rogers of the North American Bear Center confirmed Monday that Lily and her 5-month-old cub, Hope, reunited Sunday after the mother wandered into the cub's area.
The two were discovered together Monday by Mansfield, who has been videotaping mother and cub and recording their behavior. Mansfield and Rogers estimate that the bears have been together since 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Two Nunavut communities will be test sites for polar bear-proof steel food caches.
Sarah Medill, the Department of Environment’s specialist on polar bear deterrents, said the department has purchased several steel garbage bins for use as containers for food caches on the land.
While Hope retreats to a roadless area and we wait for her to become accessible again, we're thinking about the holiday traffic.
Being hit by a vehicle on Highway 169 is one of the biggest mortality factors in Shadow's clan. The highway bisects the study area, and summer traffic is heavy-especially on holiday weekends. Two days ago, the BBC filmed Juliet crossing the highway near Soudan, MN, with her 3 cubs; Sharon, Shirley, and Boy Named Sue. Realizing the family was about to cross, Gordon Buchanan set up his camera beside the highway while other crew members set up farther away to capture the big picture. Drivers saw Gordon and wondered what he was filming. They slowed down and looked-then stopped and watched the family safely cross.
The Wisconsin bear-hunting season did not show clear evidence of reducing nuisance complaints during 1995-2004, probably because hunting was not effectively designed for that goal. We call for additional research on hunter and bear behavior, including experimental tests of hunting individuals with different levels of involvement in property damage. At the statewide scale, complaints about agricultural damage, other property damage, or human safety concerns did not correlate with each other or with number of bears taken by hunters in the preceding 1-2 years.
The Wisconsin bear-hunting season did not show clear evidence of reducing nuisance complaints during 1995-2004, probably because hunting was not effectively designed for that goal. We call for additional research on hunter and bear behavior, including experimental tests of hunting individuals with different levels of involvement in property damage. At the statewide scale, complaints about agricultural damage, other property damage, or human safety concerns did not correlate with each other or with number of bears taken by hunters in the preceding 1-2 years.
We at the North American Bear Center welcome the chance to respond to Sam Cook’s June 4 column, “Bear obsession takes us down a murky path,” and the June 6 News Tribune story, “Rogers’ research draws fame, foes.”
This winter, a webcam provided unprecedented research information on how a wild black bear gives birth and cares for her young in a den. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be the biggest educational outreach we’ve ever done. We could hardly believe it when tens of thousands logged on to the Den Cam. For the next several months, they and we watched and learned together. In an Internet first, we organized Den Cam viewers to record standardized data 24/7. Viewers on the other side of the world covered the wee hours. The result was reams of data.
By next summer, Whistler should be officially labeled "Bear Smart."
Heather Beresford, the municipality's environmental stewardship manager, said thanks to council's approval of the Human-Bear Conflict Management Plan last week, Whistler has completed all the steps for the Bear Smart application.
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