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By Galen C. McBride
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
This is the first of a three-part series on animal population trends and migration.
State wildlife biologists from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, scientists from Virginia Tech, and the U.S. Forest Service, teamed to conduct what Dennis Martin, state Black Bear Program Manager, calls “one of the largest animal studies in the country.” The Cooperative Allegheny Bear Study, now in its fifth year, ' is a comprehensive, multi-faceted investigation aimed at providing information to help wildlife managers evaluate and predict population trends. The study is expected to take eight to 10 years to complete.
Additional funding has been contributed by approximately 35 private and industry organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the Virginia Bear Hunters Association, and timber companies.
Shenandoah National Park wildlife biologist Jim Atkinson added that SNP is working to develop a cooperative agreement with the state to study first bear, then whitetail deer, in the park. “Studies, so far,” he said, “have been rudimentary, dispersaltype studies. The animals’ seasonal movements are poorly understood. We have to look beyond the park.” Atkinson estimated that it would be two to three years before a project actually gets underway.
“We’d like to meet (the state) halfway,” he explained. “Funding is an issue because the technology involved is very expensive. An eight county area accounts for 50-60 percent of the statewide bear harvest each year.
At the park, there is no hunting so the bears have a protected habitat, but (the animals being killed) are our bears that are coming from Shenandoah National Park. Deer and bear are not aware of the political boundaries between private undeveloped forest land and the park.”
Nearly 800 bears were taken last sea
93.4%