Tag Archives: DNA study

Researching wolverines in the Bitterroot

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The Ravalli Republic has a pretty interesting article, with photos, on a wolverine research project in the Bitterroot National Forest. Their setup collects both hair samples for DNA data and photographic evidence, allowing them to identify individuals without waiting for DNA analysis . . .

It seemed like the perfect spot for a wolverine to visit.

A couple of miles back from the nearest road and surrounded by the kind of thick timber that offers a wary critter a good bit of security, the little nook selected by a crew of Bitterroot National Forest researchers to set their first long-term photographic monitoring site had all the makings a good place to rendezvous with wolverines.

“After awhile, you just kind of know what to look for,” said Chris Fillingham. “You go with your gut and what you’ve seen works before.”

Read more . . .

Study estimates 36 wolverines in Glacier Park

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A recently concluded study found Glacier Park to have the third highest density of Wolverines in North America . . .

Results from a multi-year DNA study of Glacier National Park’s wolverines show a relatively high density compared to other regions where the rare carnivores are known to exist.

Park biologist John Waller, along with about 50 volunteers, set up “hair traps” for wolverines from 2009 to 2012.

The traps consisted of a deer leg from roadkill bolted to a pole. Wire brushes were attached to snag hair from any animal that tried to climb the pole to gnaw on the leg.

Read more . . .

Environmental group sues USGS for NW Montana grizzly bear data

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The Alliance for the Wild Rockies is annoyed with federal foot-dragging . . .

A conservation group is suing the U.S. Geological Survey for information on threatened grizzly bears in northwestern Montana.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies says the USGS failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for reports and findings on the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear DNA Project.

The project aims to give researchers a better idea of the number of bears in that area through DNA from hair samples.

Read more . . .

More than just good data needed to delist Yellowstone grizzlies

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Rob Chaney of the Missoulian posted a good summary of the state of the grizzly bear recovery effort.

Recommended reading . . .

Since the grizzly bear was listed as a federally threatened species in 1975, it’s made a remarkable comeback.

Decades of active hunting and poisoning, habitat destruction, isolation and manipulation pushed it to the brink of extinction in the lower 48 United States. California used to have the most, even putting it on its state flag. Californians killed their last grizzly in 1922. It was erased from its native prairie grasslands by the 1880s, just eight decades after the Lewis and Clark journals gave urban Americans their first account of the great bear.

By 1940, after heavy use of strychnine poisoning by farmers and ranchers, wildlife managers estimated the United States had perhaps 300 grizzlies (not counting Alaska). Today, about 1,850 roam the mountains of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington.

“There’s been a real evolution of attitudes that got us to this point,” said Chris Servheen, the grizzly recovery manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Missoula. “We used to be all about killing predators. Now we’re concerned about predators.

Read more . . .

A ‘rock-solid minimum’ of 42 grizzlies in Cabinet-Yaak

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Solid data on the population of grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak region . . .

How many hairs does it take to make a grizzly bear?

About 11,000 tufts, snagged in special barbed-wire snares scattered throughout the Cabinet and Yaak regions of northwest Montana, cooked down to evidence of roughly 42 grizzlies in 2012. The groundbreaking research unveiled at the winter gathering of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee in Missoula marked the first time that area has had a solid population number for the rare bears.

“That’s the rock-solid minimum count we detected,” research leader Kate Kendall told the committee Tuesday. The number includes 38 grizzlies identified by their unique DNA plus four more known, collared bears that didn’t show up in the hair samples. When some tentative data about visiting bears or bears that died during the study gets added in, the figure could grow to 54.

The number’s important because the fate of grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak area influences everything from logging and mining to hiking and hunting…

Read more . . .

DNA data: about 600 black bears in Glacier Park

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Analysis of DNA data originally collected for a grizzly bear study indicates about 600 black bears live in Glacier Park . . .

A trio of researchers recently concluded that Glacier National Park’s black bear population is about 600 — roughly one black bear for every 2,167 acres.

The study, conducted by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Kate Kendall and colleagues Amy McCleod and Jeff Stetz, is based on nearly 1,800 black bear hair samples collected during a 2004 grizzly bear DNA study.

Researchers gathered hair samples using “bear traps,” with a scent station used to attract bears inside a barbed wire fence that snagged their hair, or by attaching small pieces of barbed wire to rub trees. Both grizzly and black bears select trees they regularly like to rub on. DNA in the hair follicles was analyzed to identify species and sex as well as individual bears.

Read more . . .

Grizzly population study to start in Cabinet-Yaak region

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A DNA-based grizzly bear population study is slated to being this summer in the Cabinet-Yaak area . . .

A small army will soon begin a summer of scouring the woods of extreme Northwest Montana and northern Idaho, collecting grizzly bear hair for a genetics-based population study.

The project is being led by Kate Kendall, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher who pioneered a similar large landscape grizzly bear population study in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem in 2004.

On Wednesday, Kendall was on her way to lead 70 field workers in a nine-day training session at a Forest Service work station in the upper Yaak Valley not far from the Canadian border.

Continue reading . . .

Grizzly population study planned for Idaho and Montana

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From the Flathead Beacon . . .

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.

She also said researchers will also be able to use DNA to determine blood lines and gender.

Continue reading . . .

DNA study doubles bear census

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Here’s a better article on the recently completed grizzly bear DNA study. Yesterday’s AP write-up was a little thin.

From the Wednesday, September 17, 2008 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .

The estimate is in: There were 765 grizzly bears roaming the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem during the summer of 2004.

That’s the official result of an ambitious and unprecedented genetic study of the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states. The study will be published in the January edition of the Journal of Wildlife Management.

Read the entire article . . .

Federal Study Says Grizzlies Thriving in Montana

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From the Tuesday, September 16, 2008 online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .

The majestic grizzly bear, once king of the Western wilderness but threatened with extinction for a third of a century, has roared back in Montana…

Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey announced Tuesday that there are approximately 765 bears in northwestern Montana. That’s the largest population of grizzly bears documented there in more than 30 years, and a sign that the species could be at long last rebounding.

Read the entire article . . .