Massachusetts bear census

[Emily]

pics of mother and three cubs in Mass

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... 221_bears/


story from Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaki ... p_Emailed4

New mom, cubs found in bear census

February 21, 2008 02:04 PM


By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

RUTLAND, Mass. -- State biologists conducting their annual mid-winter "bear census" made a happy discovery in the woods here this morning: One of 13 bears they've tagged with radio collars has given birth to three healthy cubs.

After anesthetizing the mother bear with a drug-filled dart at the end of a 10-foot-pole, researchers from the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife carefully picked up the estimated month-old cubs to check their gender and weight. The cubs, two males and one female, all clocked in within a few ounces of 5 pounds. Their mother -- who has the less-than-poetic name of "Worcester County Bear'' -- registered a healthy 176 pounds when workers picked the sleeping bear up in a net and weighed her on a scale suspended from a hastily chopped maple limb.

Being briefly stunned and handled won't do any damage to the mother, nor are the cubs harmed by a brief period of handling by humans, according to officials involved in the now 38-year-old bear count. "We've never had any ill effects from it,'' said Ralph Taylor, a district manager for the wildlife department. "Most of the time, though, I do think they wake up and wonder what the heck happened.''

Taylor and his fellow employees were careful to put the mother black bear and her cubs back in the same position where they found them, in a makeshift den under fallen red oak and maple trees in woods about a half-mile from Route 68 in this northern Worcester County town.

Although never officially an endangered species, the number of bears in Massachusetts dwindled to barely 100 by 1970 as a result of hunting and residential and commercial development that broke up their forest habitat. Now officials with the wildlife department and the University of Massachusetts Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit estimate there are anywhere from 3,000 to 3,500 across the state, almost all of them living in Worcester County and Western Massachusetts, and a few periodically appearing in rural parts of Essex County. Most of the bears tagged with radio collars by state wildlife workers roam in the Connecticut River Valley and Berkshire County.

Jim Cardoza, a 38-year department veteran, said one of the main reasons bears seem to be flourishing is, unfortunately, that they have ample access to food provided by humans, including bird feeders, compost piles, and garbage cans, as well as corn and other crops grown on farms. That means not only more food for all bears but better nutrition for female bears of breeding ages during their winter breeding season, which means they give birth to more cubs.

"They can get nutrition in ways that they couldn't get it before,'' Cardoza said. "In some ways, I'm not sure this is good for them. We talk now a lot about childhood obesity. Twenty years down the line, are we going to see problems with bears?''

Only about 150 bears are killed each year in Massachusetts, Cardoza said, in a hunting season that typically lasts for 17 days after Labor Day and another three weeks in November.

[mpritchard]

Great stuff there Emily, thanks for posting!!