Researching black bear-human interactions and black bear ecology in Colorado

Colorado State University

Fort Collins, CO 80523-1474

Phone: 970-491-7020

Fax: 970-491-5091

e-mail

Click here for Sharon's Webpage

Cooperative studies between:

Colorado Division of Wildlife

Colorado State University

USDA - WS - National Wildlife Research Center

Black bear-human conflicts in Colorado: Spatiotemporal patterns and predictors

M.S. May 2007

Black bear (Ursus americanus) and human conflicts have increased in Colorado since the 1970's. At the same time, the human population in Colorado almost doubled in size and current trend suggests additional growth of 60% by 2030. As people continue to develop and use black bear habitat, interactions between bears and humans will increase as does the potential for conflicts. Our objectives are to categorize, plot and describe the spatial and temporal distribution of bear-human conflicts in the state as well as to model which predictors best explain these distributions. We wish to understand the distribution of black-bear human conflicts in Colorado as they relate to spatial and temporal variables including, anthropogenic development, climatic patterns, habitat features, and the demographic makeup of the nuisance bear populations.

Sharon Baruch-Mordo's Thesis

Click here to read Thesis Abstract

Roaring Fork valley urban black bear ecology

Current PhD work

In the summer of 2005, we initiated the pilot year of a 5-year cooperative study between Colorado State University, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Research Center. The study area is the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado, and our main objectives are:

Determining how human development affects the ecology of black bears by collecting data on bears resource selection in town, daily and seasonal movements, and activity patterns.
Evaluating the effectiveness of education as a management tool for reducing the availability of anthropogenic foods, thus reducing bear-human conflicts.

We are deploying up to 15 Global Positioning Systems (GPS) collars on urban black bears in the towns of Glenwood Springs and Aspen, Colorado. We are collecting detailed 30-minute interval fixes, and backtrack to the last 24-hours of bear locations to collect resource selection data. In addition we are evaluating the success of 1st-strike translocated bears by deploying store-on-board GPS collars and monitoring bear movement patterns after they are released.

Click here to read Project Abstract

Follow the links below to learn more about the study:

TV:

Aspen Plum TV July 30, 2007 - Urban black bear study interview

CBS4 Denver May 18, 2006 - Researchers Track Bears to Protect Them