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Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, along with a team of wildlife advocates, partnered up for a recent outing in Montana’s Centennial Mountains. The task at hand was to locate signs of grizzly bears.

Due to climate change, one of the grizzly’s primary source of food has been threatened. An epidemic of pine beetles has ravaged the whitebark pine forests all across the West, including the Centennial Mountains. The grizzlies rely on the nutrient rich nuts from these whitebark pines, in order to fatten up for hibernation.

Equipped with GPS navigation and some expert knowledge, the team set out to find evidence that the bears are branching out to new areas, in hopes of finding new food sources.

Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation is a great non-profit organization, which, as its name suggests, pools the resources of adventurers and scientists to better understand and protect wildlife and the environment. Volunteers of all experience levels are trained by expert scientists on how to locate and identify various types of data needed for research.

In this case, the adventurers attended three comprehensive workshops, which prepared them to track and collect data from the grizzly bears. The volunteers were taught how to distinguish grizzly bear hair, which have grizzled silver tips, from other types of bear and animal hair. They were also taught what types of bear signs to look out for, such as paw prints by riverbanks, as well as scratches and hairs left on trees and fences.

Now that the team had their training and GPS devices on hand, they were ready to track some grizzlies. GPS technology has empowered the individual with precise location data, which can be used for countless purposes.

Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation have harnessed the potential for everyday hikers to collect scientifically relevant data. With this information, scientists can have a better understanding how wildlife relies on its environment.

The more scientists understand this relationship, the better they can protect the wilderness from development.

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor