West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Bear Tracking

GPS tracking black bears? The WV DNR goes high tech.

September 26, 2007
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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This time of year, a lot of you will be out in the woods scouting for game. Dnr biologists are, too, only they're not getting ready for hunting season, they're looking for new black bears to track.

There's one in there.

Colin Carpenter/DNR Biologist says:
"Where is your head? There it is."

Colin carpenter and his team will spend months in the mountains of west virginia working with these magnificent animals.

Colin Carpenter/DNR Biologist says:
"This is just a regular old VHS transmitter we've been putting on the bears for about 30 years. This will allow us to go in this winter and check her den for cubs and see how many and what sex they are. This collar should last 3-4 years before we need to replace it."

These biologists will only track females...Their reproductive patterns is a key part of the southern black bear study.

Colin Carpenter/DNR Biologist says:
"That's a sow isn't it? Yes."

Now the collar goes on, hopefully they'll find this girl in the winter with a few cubs. The bears here actually reproduce at a relatively high rate.

Colin Carpenter/DNR Biologist says:
"In most years, sows in the southern part of the state have move cubs than those in the mountain part of the state. In the past, the mountain county bears have averaged two and a quarter cubs per female. Down here, we're averaging around 3 cubs per female, so it's a faster growing population. It's a way to keep track of how fast the bear population is growing."

That's key information biologists need to manage the bear population. Soon they'll have gps collars which will give them even more data.

Colin Carpenter/DNR Biologist says:
"What these collars will allow us to do is have a GPS data logger on it so when we turn it on, it will actually be logging points, locations for about 2 years-the life of the collar. At roughly two years, an automatic switch will make it fall off and we'll collect it and download all the way points stored on the unit."

That information will be closely guarded, only available to biologists studying the bears. Within two years, they expect to know a whole lot more about how far these females roam.