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All Research Articles
If you're hiking in the foothills near Hinton, you might find deep dents in the soil, accompanied by the scrapes of a paw.
Make that a grizzly-bear paw. In spring and fall, the bears dig in the foothills and nearby alpine areas in search of a nutritious root that a University of Alberta graduate student hopes could help researchers identify important habitat for the bears, which were designated a threatened species in Alberta last year.
METRO VANCOUVER - Nick Didlick wasn't sure what to expect when he hiked into the thick rainforests of the upper Pitt River Valley and set up a remotely activated video camera on a trail beside a salmon-spawning channel.
The professional photographer and fishing guide recalls returning two weeks later, crouching down and peering at the small image on the camera and realizing right away he had captured something special.
"I looked and said, 'Oh my God, this is a grizzly,'" said Didlick, who first saw what he believed to be grizzly tracks in the valley in 2005. "I guess it wasn't a good place to be alone."
CALGARY - Some of the world's foremost bear experts are looking at new ways to prevent grizzlies from getting killed along railway tracks inside Banff National Park.
A dozen bears have been killed and a half dozen cubs orphaned in the last decade and experts estimate there are now only between 45 and 60 grizzlies left in the park.
Last year, Alberta reclassified the species as threatened because of rapidly dwindling numbers.
Local black bear researchers are predicting a wave of increased bear activity in the Village and valley this fall due to the worst berry crop Whistler has seen in almost two decades.
Experts are pleading with locals to be extra careful by safely disposing of garbage, not having bird feeders, keeping dog food inside and keeping areas around the house clean.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Researchers are planning to collect grizzly bear fur samples snagged on barbed wire as part of a three-year study in northern Idaho and northwestern Montana.
The study, which begins next summer, should give a more precise estimate of the number of grizzlies in the 2.4-million acre Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem, said Kate Kendall, a U.S. Geological Service scientist at Glacier National Park.
Next summer, grizzly bears will follow their noses to census sites.
Enticed by the smell of fermented cow blood and fish guts, they'll crawl through corrals of barbed wire to sniff logs doused with the mixture. Unbeknownst to them, the big bruins will be leaving DNA samples behind.
Researchers will collect hair snared on the barbed wire. Through DNA testing, scientists will be able to identify individual grizzlies and determine their gender and blood lines. The three-year study will yield more precise estimates of the number of grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem of North Idaho and Western Montana.
KALISPELL, Mont. - A young female grizzly bear fitted with a satellite collar for more than a year embarked on several lengthy swims across portions of Flathead Lake, wildlife officials in Montana said.
Rick Mace with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the 4-year-old grizzly made the swims after being captured on the west side of the lake near Flathead Lake Lutheran Camp late last summer.
In the Whistler area, Vaccinium berries - huckleberries and blueberries - are roughly five weeks behind, which means as we near mid-September there is no high elevation berry crop.
The highest elevation at which bears are now berry feeding (Sept. 9) is 4,200 ft, that's usually where bears are berry feeding in late July and early August.
Four years ago the Alaska Legislature offered Gov. Sarah Palin and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game a special deal: $400,000 to "educate" voters on predator control. The money -- spent mostly on a video, glossy brochures and public presentations -- was meant to persuade and reassure Alaskans that predator control is essential and effective.
Firmly convinced he's doing the right thing, the new director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation at Fish and Game, Corey Rossi, is taking predator control to new levels. For the first time since statehood, Alaska has targeted grizzly bears for large-scale population reductions, not by hunters but by agents of the state.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The collar of the wild is coming.
Lisa Wolfe, a veterinarian at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, fed and monitored Rascal on Monday as he walked on the treadmill.
And in the same way that the smartphone changed human communications, what might be called the "smart collar" - measuring things that people never could before about how animals move and eat and live their lives - could fundamentally transform how wild populations are managed, and imagined, biologists and wildlife managers say.
Every spring and fall, William Housty walks the banks of the Koeye River, spreading a concoction with a smell almost guaranteed to make humans retch.
But the mixture of salmon oil, boileddown beaver juice, skunk essence and berries is irresistible to grizzly bears and, as the animals are drawn to the pungent mixture, snags of their hair, caught on strategically-placed barbed wire, tell their stories.
DULUTH - Hunters participating in Minnesota's bear season, which opens Thursday, are asked to avoid shooting radio-collared research bears. The bears are marked with large colorful ear tags or colorful streamers and should be easy to spot.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources researchers are monitoring about 35 radio-collared black bears, most of them in northwestern Minnesota, especially near Thief Lake Wildlife Management Area and the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge.
WINNIPEG - A wildlife biologist from Minnesota says black bear problems this summer can be solved without killing any more bears.
Lynn Rogers, director of the Wildlife Research Institute and the North American Bear Centre in Ely, Minnesota, said studies show that putting food out for bears at a designated site - a practice known as diversionary feeding - can keep black bears away from populated areas but doesn't condition the bears to human food.
Some of the world's foremost bear experts are to gather in Banff next month to find new ways to prevent grizzlies from getting killed along railway tracks inside the national park.
A dozen of the bears have been killed and a half dozen cubs orphaned in the last decade and experts estimate there are now only between 45 and 60 grizzlies left in the park. Last year, Alberta reclassified the species as threatened because of rapidly dwindling numbers.
Three of the mighty bruins have died this year. Two were killed on the Trans-Canada Highway. A third was hit by a train on the CP Rail line and left behind two orphan cubs.
Black bears are undeniably a part of the Whistler scene and are beloved by locals and tourists alike. Unfortunately, they're also the source of frustration for some, most notably the conservation officers who are forced to deal with the animals when the get into conflict with humans.
Most of the time these conflicts are not the fault of the animal but rather people who were careless in how they went about securing potential bear attractants such as garbage and bird feeders.
Edmonton scientist Ian Stirling's new book on polar bears wasn't even in bookstores this summer when a venerable American wildlife magazine posted a gushing review.
"A delight to view and to read," wrote biologist Sterling Miller, who noted in his National Wildlife review that he's long benefited from similarities in their names.
Describing Stirling as the "Godfather" of polar bear science, Miller couldn't say enough good things about the book and about Stirling.
It was seen as one of the most distressing effects of climate change ever recorded: polar bears dying of exhaustion after being stranded between melting patches of Arctic sea ice.
But now the government scientist who first warned of the threat to polar bears in a warming Arctic has been suspended and his work put under official investigation for possible scientific misconduct.
Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist, oversaw much of the scientific work for the government agency that has been examining drilling in the Arctic. He managed about $50m (£30.5m) in research projects.
Two famous grizzly bear mothers have swapped a cub in Grand Teton National Park in what might best be described as an example of animal altruism, biologists said this week.
The roadside family drama of grizzly mothers 399 and 610 and their total of five cubs-of-the-year unfolded in front of thrilled crowds near Willow Flats last week.
Grizzly 399 and her daughter from 2006, grizzly 610, have previously been seen with three cubs and two cubs, respectively.
Arctic sea ice is at a record low this month, according to the University of Washington Polar Science Center. Sea ice volume is 47 per cent lower than it was in 1979, when researchers started collecting satellite records.
Because their ice habitat is shrinking away from land, polar bears have been forced to find food by either staying on shore or swimming vast distances to find sea ice.
Steve Gehman's first job as a wildlife biologist landed him in the middle of some of the richest grizzly bear habitat in North America. Fresh out of graduate school at Oregon State University, Gehman took a job documenting wildlife activity near Gardiner on the northern edge of Yellowstone National Park.
It was on those rugged slopes that Gehman first documented wild grizzly bears. It was an experience that developed into an occupation and later a passion. His career would lead him north to Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Kodiak Island, to Montana's Swan Range and the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.
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