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Bear Study
Understanding how many black and brown bears live across Ahtna Territory is essential for responsible wildlife stewardship, community safety, and informed harvest management. Through non-invasive genetic sampling and collaboration with partners, AITRC is working to quantify bear populations across Game Management Units 13 and 11.
“Why would we sell permits for bear-baiting when we don’t know how many bears are on the land?”
This project began with a powerful question from an Ahtna Elder. That question sparked a multi-year collaborative effort to estimate black and brown bear populations across the Ahtna region. In 2021 and 2022, the Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission (AITRC) partnered with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADFG), Ahtna Inc., and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to conduct one of the most comprehensive non-invasive bear studies in the Upper Copper River Basin.
Black and brown bear populations are difficult and expensive to estimate. Advancements in genetic testing provide AITRC the opportunity to identify individual bears to the species level using hair samples collected from hair snares and tissue samples saved from hunter-harvested bears. These samples allow us to establish general population structure using mark-capture-recapture methodology.
Hair Snare Deployment.
The project utilizes a noninvasive hair snare design, camera traps, hunter harvest data, and sightings from local villages to estimate black and brown bear populations within Game Management Units (GMU) 11 and 13. Sampling efforts are focused in areas of high bear activity selected based on habitat quality, food availability, common bear sightings, and successful harvest records. Locations are chosen with the aid of Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis and ground truthing to ensure appropriate placement while minimizing potential contamination of samples and interference with bear movement.
Standard corral-style barbed wire hair snares are deployed to collect hair samples. Barbed wire is strung around trees or posts so that tufts of hair are collected as bears pass over or under the wire to access bait placed in the center of the corral. Bears are attracted using non-caloric scent lures. Each barb is processed as an independent sample. GPS coordinates are recorded at each snare site, and locations are entered into a Geographic Information System for mapping and analysis.
Hair snares are deployed during five separate sampling periods over the course of the summer, occurring in April, May, June, July, and August. Each sampling period lasts three weeks, and sites are checked once per week or more as needed. This schedule helps reduce degradation of hair samples and limits cross contamination.
Field Monitoring & Site Investigations.
All hair snare locations are recorded using GPS and mapped in GIS software. Camera traps are deployed at select sites to monitor bear movement patterns and reactions to the hair snare design. Technicians navigate remote terrain to check sites and collect samples safely and consistently. This is paird with hunter harvest data and sightings from local villages to estimate the populations of black and brown bears within the Ahtna region
Why this matters?
Estimating black and brown bear populations is a necessary component of understanding the broader ecosystem in which bears function as apex predators. Reliable population data provides critical information for evaluating predator-prey dynamics, particularly in relation to concerns about low moose numbers within the region. Without accurate estimates of bear abundance and density, wildlife management decisions are made with limited understanding of population structure and distribution.
The information gathered through this project helps address existing data gaps between State of Alaska and National Park Service bear population datasets. Increasing the availability of region-specific data strengthens management decisions and improves coordination among agencies and landowners operating within the Upper Copper River Basin.
For Ahtna communities, population estimates are also directly connected to village safety and responsible harvest management. Maintaining a healthy and sustainable bear population while continuing to allow quality hunting opportunities on Ahtna lands requires informed, science-based decision making.
Ahtna people have long served as stewards of the land. Developing reliable bear population estimates represents an important step in continuing that stewardship by integrating genetic science, field research, and Indigenous knowledge to guide long-term wildlife management across Ahtna Territory.
Wildlife techs, Luke Porter and Petros Platis, flew into Tazlina Lake where they boated around setting up sites for the Bear Hair Snare project
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Wildlife Technician, Damien James is hard at work recording all of our data for our bear project!
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2021 wildlife tech, Jessy John seting up a freestanding bear hair trap to collect samples for genetic analysis