Black Bear Research

NDOW is dedicated to making science-based decisions in our management of bears.  The only way to effectively do this is to conduct ongoing research into Nevada’s bear population.   This research benefits not only Nevada’s bears and residents but also assists states across the nation by providing the best available science. NDOW uses the mark-recapture method with bears for population monitoring and demographics.

Nevada’s bear management and conservation, has benefitted immensely by its relationship with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Working together since 1999 the NDOW/WCS/UNR team led the way in urban bear research.  This research represents one, if not the longest-running and earliest comparative studies of a black bear population at the wildlife-urban interface in North America.  This collaborative approach has allowed a better understanding of the ecological, demographic and behavioral changes in a large, recolonizing carnivore, and to use the data to impact conservation and management.  The collaboration has produced several peer-reviewed publications in professional journals (see below).

NDOW provides biological samples from bears we have handled to assist with other studies inside and outside of the state.  For instance, hair and blood samples were provided to the University of Nevada, Reno for DNA analysis (Malaney et al. 2017);  the University of Memphis was provided with tissue samples for an ongoing study on color patterns in black bears; the University of Tennessee used Nevada bear hair samples for an isotope analysis of bear hair (expected publishing date of Summer 2019); Columbia University in New York analyzed GPS data from Nevada bears  to learn about the mortality risks facing bears in urban landscapes (Wynn-Grant et al. 2018); and currently NDOW is partnered with Michigan State University on a non-invasive DNA sampling project in wildland areas.  In addition to these projects, NDOW’s wildlife health lab is collaborating with Oregon State University and UC Davis looking into disease and virology of black bears.

Resultant publications can be found here:

• Assimilated diet patterns of American black bears in the Sierra Nevada and western Great Basin, Nevada, USA
• Lessons learned from a 20-year collaborative study on American black bears
• Risky business: Modeling mortality risk near the urban-wildland interface for a large carnivore
• Natural rewilding of the Great Basin: Genetic consequences of recolonization by black bears
• Bear Historical Ranges Revisited: Documenting the Increase of a Once-Extirpated Population in Nevada
• Using Genetic Relatedness to Investigate the Development of Conflict Behavior in Black Bears
• Carnivores, urban landscapes, and longitudinal studies: a case history of black bears
• Using Black Bears to Test Ideal-Free Distribution Models Experimentally
• Rapid ecological and behavioral changes in carnivores: the responses of black bears to altered food
• Evaluation of Deterrent Techniques on Altering Behavior of Black Bears
• Are Desert Basins Effective Barriers to Movements of Relocated Black Bears

Other Research

• Shifting perceptions of risk and reward: Dynamic selection for human development by black bears in the western United States
• Going into the 21st Century: A Perspective on Trends and Controversies in the Management of the American Black Bear
• How agencies respond to human–black bear conflicts: a survey of wildlife agencies in North America

 

Other Publications

• Human Black Bear Conflicts: A review of common management practices
• Bear Bulletin