Grizzly Study: Idaho & Montana

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. Kate Kendall, a scientist at the U.S. Geological Service at Glacier National Park, is heading up the research. She used identical methods several years ago to count grizzlies in Montana’s Northern Divide Ecosystem. The 34,000 hair samples led to a revised estimate of 765 grizzlies – 2 ½ times more than previously thought...more