White said his colleague, bear researcher LaVern Beier, never had any doubt about what was going on.

“Kevin was really focused at first on another researcher, but the odds were just too great that someone else would be using that same frequency in the same area,” Beier said. “This was the only logical explanation. But it had to be the right bear with the right size head, and it stayed on.”

Beier said that every year or so, Alaskans see pictures in the newspapers of a moose in Anchorage tangled in a swing set, wrapped in a string of Christmas tree lights, or wearing an old tire or something.

“Bears are way more mischievous and opportunistic, and they are really curious about foreign objects in their environment,” he said.

Beier has watched bears scavenging and said they really root around and get into things, and he can picture a bear slipping its head through the collar.

From JuneauEmpire.com via The Outdoor News Hound.

…expected to produce preliminary maps of migration patterns as early as January.

According to O’Shea, a comprehensive report is not expected until 2008. The report will include data pertaining to interactions between humans and moose.

Researchers hope to implement an electronic warning system that would alert drivers in areas on roads where moose frequently cross.

In Northern British Columbia, they are taking a different approach to wildlife collision avoidance, by putting GPS tracking systems on humans:

Ten Prince George drivers are being given mobile GPS units equipped with buttons that allow them to log when and where they see moose or deer — either dead or alive — along roads.

The information is then downloaded into a computer for analysis and mapping in the research program, which continues until next summer.