ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 25, 1996 TAG: 9603250060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
WILDLIFE EXPERTS ARE conducting a seven-year research study to determine just how many bears there are in Virginia and whether the population is increasing.
They'd tracked the bear since January, but waited until her guard was down.
Finally, last week, the team made its way up the steep mountainside, scuttling under fallen trees and climbing over jagged rocks. They crouched around her hideout, a remote shelter between rocks in George Washington National Forest.
A chill hung in the air; the new-fallen snow glistened brightly and rendered their green camouflage useless.
Silently, the sharpshooter dropped to his belly and inched closer to the entrance. The bear had retreated inside; if it weren't for the laser on the shooter's pistol, he couldn't have gotten a clean shot.
But he hit his target dead center, and now the team just had to wait. Her breathing, which slowed more with each passing minute, echoed through the dark hole of her cave.
Unsure of what he would find, the sharpshooter slithered into the narrow slit that barely revealed a roomy opening in the rocky mountainside. A woman some call the "Mole" followed in to retrieve their prize.
With a rope around her paws and a push from behind, out came B-86, a 126-pound black bear, sleeping soundly from the tranquilizer that had penetrated her shoulder minutes before.
Out came the sharpshooter, otherwise known as Larry Crane, wildlife biologist and bear expert.
Then an arm emerged from the darkness of the den. It belonged to the "Mole," Virginia Tech graduate student Kris Higgins, delivering an unexpected bonus: four fuzzy cubs, shivering from the cold but apparently healthy and definitely adorable.
"Nice job," praised Mike Vaughn, a wildlife scientist and professor of wildlife at Virginia Tech.
Chris Ryan, a Virginia Tech graduate student who led the pursuit, responded, "We were lucky."
A humble statement considering the months of study and field work that went into last week's expedition into the woods of Giles County. Just another day in a massive, seven-year research project called the Cooperative Alleghany Bear Study.
The $140,000-per-year study should help determine just how many bears there are in Virginia and whether the population is increasing. Wildlife experts will collar each bear with a radio transmitter that records where it is, when it heads for a den for the winter, and how and when it dies.
The project involves a number of partners, including the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Tech, the National Biological Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
The groups are hoping this study will help determine how long bear-hunting season should last, and how many people should be allowed to hunt each year. That's where other, less obvious contributors such as the Virginia Bear Hunters Association and the Virginia Houndsmen and Sporting Dog Association come in.
David Steffen, a wildlife program manager with the state, said the hunting groups have the same concerns as wildlife preservation contributors, such as the Audubon Society.
"They all want a healthy bear population." He said the hunting clubs "have been an invaluable help with this study."
Last fall, the Virginia Houndsmen allowed several Tech students to run with them while they trained their hunting dogs. The dogs practiced chasing bears up a tree, and the students got a feel for how many bears there are and where they live.
The number of harvested, or hunted, bears has risen steadily since 1982; hunters killed about 500 in 1994. The black bear population in Virginia is estimated at between 3,500 and 4,500.
"But we can't say for sure, and that's why were doing this," said Vaughn, who heads the study, as he stood near the passed-out bear.
Biologists attached a collar to this sow, or nursing female bear, last summer. Ryan and others have kept track of her movements through radio signals. Ryan said he has spent at least one day a week since Christmas scouring her territory to find the hidden opening in a rock formation where she chose to spend the winter.
Several observers on this particular expedition keep the cubs warm - despite unseasonably cold temperatures that lingered in the 30s - by tucking them under their winter coats. Born less than two months ago, the three males and one female weigh about 21/2 pounds and fit snugly into the front of a zipped parka.
One whimpers like a human infant as its mother gets the once-over from the team.
Biologist Betsy Stinson tattoos B-86 on the inside of the sow's upper lip with a hand-held tattoo drill, then washes off the excess ink with some snow.
Higgins, who got her "Mole" nickname as the only undergraduate at the University of Maine small enough to fit inside some of the bear dens, stretches a tape measure across the sow's furry back. B-86 comes in at just over 6 feet long.
They already know the bear is 7 years old; the team pulled a tooth last summer and counted the rings, similar to the rings seen in the cross-section of a tree, that reveal a bear's age.
B-86 got a brand new collar with a stretchy material that leaves room to grow. Her cubs were too small to get collars, but they were tagged with bright green plastic that jutted out from their fuzzy ears like alien antennas.
After an hour, it was time for the team to cover its tracks and head out before the tranquilizer wore off and B-86 got a good look at her captors. Gently, they slid her back into her den and tucked the cubs in next to her warm belly.
And last but not least, to prevent Mama Bear from detecting a human odor and possibly rejecting her cubs, the secret weapon: Vicks VapoRub, applied generously to every snout. Black Bears:
Smaller than grizzly bears, with an adult male weighing in at 100 to 400 pounds. Grizzlies, by contrast, can weigh up to 850 pounds.
Young females often share the same territory as their mothers, while young and older male bears find their own 15 square miles of land to call home.
Eat grass, blueberries, acorns, insects, small rodents and, if they can get their paws on it, human food.
In 1957, Virginia's bear population was estimated to be 1,100; current estimates range between 3,500 and 4,500 statewide, though the purpose of the current study is to get an accurate number.
Bear harvest numbers have increased significantly in the past 15 years. Virginia hunters killed 200 in 1980; that increased to about 500 in 1994.
Source: Virginia Wildlife magazine
LENGTH: Long : 135 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Virginia biologist and bear expert Larry Craneby CNBbrings out one of four cubs from a den in George Washington National
Forest. The bears are being tagged and tracked to get an accurate
count of the bear population in Virginia. color
2. GENE DALTON/Staff One of four cubs is measured by Virginia Tech
student Kris Higgins as John Bellemore of the U.S. Forest Service
helps. The cub, its siblings and mother were tracked, tagged and
released in the woods of Giles County. color
3. GENE DALTON/Staff Not unlike other babies separated from their
mothers, a cub cries out as it is weighed, measured, and tagged
before being returned to its den and Mama Bear, who had been
tranquilized.
4. map showing range of the black bear in Virginia STAFF