GPS Tracking Project in Colorado Aimed at Reducing Black Bear-Human Encounters and Conflicts
11 Oct 2016
Heather Johnson, a Colorado Parks & Wildlife’s researcher, is conducting a five-year study around the Durango area of the behavior of black bears and their interactions with humans. She is now four years into the study.
Around 380 bears are being equipped with GPS tracking technology and being monitored as part of this study.
The information Johnson and scientists are gathering from the study is providing them with insight on how the bear populations are being affected by a shortage in food. In 2012, the number of bears decreased significantly due to a lack of food. Johnson was in the middle of her study during this time.
The research objectives are to:
- Figure out how urban environments influence the black bear population trends and behavior
- Find strategies to reduce human-bear conflicts
- Evaluate the behaviors and attitudes of the public in regards to human-bear encounters
- Manage and monitor bears by developing habitat and population models
In order to meet these objectives, researchers have to trap and collar the bears in the Durango area so they can track their feeding and movement patterns. They need to monitor the reproduction and survival of the bears and collect data through GPS tracking. They have to determine how much natural food is available to the bears and test how effective bear-resistant garbage containers.
In Colorado and all over the country, human-bear encounters and conflicts are at a rise. Things like changes in the weather like frequent droughts and increased residential development is likely to increase this trend due to a decline in natural food for the black bears. Conflicts between humans and bears typically leads to public safety threats, property damage, high bear mortality and an increase in wildlife management costs.
Not to mention, scientists don’t know if this rise in conflicts reflect a behavioral shift where the bears are eating human food or changes in the number of bears. It could be a combination of both of these. But, without fully knowing the relationship between bear behavior, conflict rates and population dynamics, it’s hard for wildlife agencies to reduce conflicts successfully through management.
Most of the bears are staying in the Durango study area which includes a 6-mile radius from town with the exception of a few that wander up Hermosa Creek and into the La Platas.
Every winter, a researcher is dropped in a den of a semi-hibernating bear by rope to maintain the GPS tracking devices.
This study will be among the most thorough studies to date on how black bears use urban environments by linking population trends to bear behavior as well as testing management methods rigorously.
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