GPS tracking collar envy February 27, 2008
Posted by Rich in : GPS tracking wildlife , trackback
How in the world did a GPS tracking collar placed on a mountain goat end up on a black bear? Apparently the bear scavenged the carcass of a dead goat and then, somehow, manged to “put on” the collar. Biologist Kevin White (pictured at left) was the fellow who had to decipher this confusing case of collar envy…
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.
Comments»
Yeah right - and maybe the bear stayed in a hotel that was giving away free GPS collars as a promotion.