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West Virginia Wildlife
BLACK BEARS
Patrick McMurtry
August 31, 2005
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Larry Clark

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There's still a few weeks left in summer, but for DNR biologists, this is the prime time to study black bears. Patrick McMurtry takes you to the hills of Kanawha county and the black bear living there.



W.Va. Wildlife from Eyewitness News



"Easy boy, easy.....let's back off."

This is life in the trenches for DNR bear biologists. They're right in the middle of a survey that will help the Division of Natural Resources get a handle of the black bear population in this part of the state.

Gary Sharp/DNR Biologist says:
"The Southern WV bear study was initiated in 1999. It involves capturing some wild female bears and that's why we run these trap lines. If this had been a female bear, we would have put a transmitter on her and she would have become part of our reproductive study."

If the DNR biologists had caught a female bear, they would have put a tracking collar on it to help them track it. This is a male, so it's got an ear tag and a corresponding lip tatoo. He is now officially 1346. Biologists will take blood samples.

They'll measure everything from his paws to the size of his head. They even check to see how big the big guy's chest is.

W.Va. Wildlife from Eyewitness News



This bear is about 4 years old. Just ripe for pre-season harvesting and that's just what we're fixing to do. Some call it poaching. We call it being proactive. He's one of the hundreds of bears in the woods around here. Because of this study, biologists will be able to get a better idea of how many there are.

"We know how many ear tags bears we get in the harvest, then we know how many were available to harvest for hunters. Then we can take the number that is actually killed and get a bear population."

And that's valuable information for anyone interested in West Virginia's largest animal.

The southern West Virginia black bear study has found a very dense bear population in the state's most densely populated county.



LINKS TO LEARN MORE

W. Va. DNR


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