Pictures
Today I got to do an 8 mile hike with a biologist from UTK doing work on estimating the black bear population in the park. Whereas this used to be done with live traps, this year the study has transitioned to DNA tracking that requires only a sample of a bear's hair to identify individuals. The snare set up to catch the bear hair is amaaaazingly high tech. It involves: barbed wire, a can of sardines, a tampon, and a bottle of raspberry extract. Sound intriguing? Check here for pictures. I got to inspect bear scat with someone who actually knows something about it (while I LOVE scat, I know little about it). I also found out about "ritual trails," the way black bears, like the Sand People from Star Wars, will step in their own and/or other black bear tracks when traveling on a frequently used trail. Why? No clue, but it looks kind of neat. We also saw some pine trees with paw swipes and scent rubbing, a few American Chestnut samplings (that unfortunately will die before making it to adulthood, plenty of squaw-root (a bear favorite), a juvenile timber rattler that, miraculously, didn't bite any of the 4 people who stepped directly over it, tons of hemlock woolly adelgid, and a few bear scat deposits. How's that for a summer job?
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