By: Aaron Wirsing
Since 2012, we have been sampling brown bear hair with barbed wires strung across sockeye salmon spawning streams feeding into Lake Aleknagik (Bristol Bay, AK) for the purpose of generating noninvasive genetic population estimates. So far this year, the bear activity has been a tad slow (not much hair snagged on the wires), but this wire deployed on the aptly named Bear Creek was recently visited by an immature bald eagle (see below)!
As usual, sampling will run through the end of August, after which we'll send our hair specimens to the lab at the University of Idaho for analysis, hoping for lots of individual IDs (genotypes).
As usual, sampling will run through the end of August, after which we'll send our hair specimens to the lab at the University of Idaho for analysis, hoping for lots of individual IDs (genotypes).
Every so often, when our barbed wires and motion-activated cameras work in perfect harmony, we get a moment like this one (on upper Hansen Creek).
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 | Also, our daily Hansen walks are catching on...  |
 Cubs! (Upper Eagle Creek) |  Bear meets wire (on Eagle Creek). |
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