 "Photo: Courtesy photo")
he University of New Hampshire may be the home of the Wildcats, but the school mascot is getting a run for its money from some local bruins.
UNH researchers and town residents are teaming up for a yearlong research study on a small population of black bears that have been wandering into the backyards of Durham residents in search of food.
"We have known that there have been black bears in the area for well over a decade," said research head and UNH professor Peter Pekins. "But it's different than it is in northern New Hampshire because we aren't used to living with them around."
The New Hampshire Fish and Game and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services are funding the research in hopes of using its information to improve bear management - a responsibility of each organization.
"Our main goal is to find out how they are able to be successful in this area with the higher human population," said Pekins. "The bears are adapting to us, which is what makes this study unique."
Pekins believes that human-associated foods have brought black bears to the Seacoast region in recent years, and that locally they are concentrated mainly in the Durham Point area, which is roughly 10 square miles in size, largely forested and undeveloped.
And while most students are not aware of the close proximity of black bears to campus, UNH sophomore Wes Smith is preparing to come face to face with the animals as a part of the research team that will be trapping and tagging the bears with radio and GPS collars.
"My job is to track the bears and take that data and enter it into a Geographic Information System, which is like an interactive map," said Smith. "I have to determine the bears' home ranges, movement corridors, food sources and dispersal."
Smith, wildlife major with past experience in bear research, received over $4,000 in grants from the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) as aid for his work on the research project this summer.
Pekins and Smith are currently setting up different potential trapping locations with bait of different scents and foods connected to cameras, which will automatically take a picture as the bait is taken. Within the next month the team hopes to have bears consistently returning to the same spots so they can begin trapping and tagging.
"Our goal is to get collars on five females. They will allow us to monitor the number of cubs being produced yearly, and they have historically been more problematic with humans in the past," said Pekins.
Students and local residents have also been actively participating in the study by reporting information on recent bear sightings to an online survey posted on the UNH Department of Natural Resources' website.
Between April 10 and April 13, the site had 17 different sightings reported. However, due to the non-territorial nature of the bears, it is likely that the same bear was seen multiple times, said Pekins.
"Students shouldn't worry about running into a bear," said Smith. "Everyone just needs to be conscious about leaving things like bird feed and garbage out in the open."
The New Hampshire Fish and Game offers similar advice on their website, as well as other detailed information and fact sheets regarding bear management as a tool to educate people living in black bear populated areas.
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