Bear selfies surprise researchers
Unexpected Elk Island Park resident weasels way into study
A researcher studying weasels in Elk Island National Park has made an unexpected discovery: there are bears in the ’hood.
Two black bears have taken selfies recently with a motion-sensor camera while nosing around bait left for fishers by Frances Stewart, a PhD candidate from the University of Victoria.
“The bears are a bycatch, but it is pretty neat to see them,” Stewart said. “No one is really sure how many are around.”
Less than an hour east of Edmonton, Elk Island is known for its herds of deer, bison, and, quite naturally, elk. Bears are extremely rare, however.
“We don’t know if it is the same bear and it is just roaming around, or if there is more than one.”
MARTHA ALLEN
“We expect maybe one or two to pass through each summer,” Martha Allen, the park’s ecologist, said. “They are not very common.”
Three sightings have been reported by visitors in the last six weeks, Allen said, all in different parts of the park.
“We don’t know if it is the same bear and it is just roaming around, or if there is more than one,” she said.
Making it a bit more puzzling is the fact that the park is surrounded by a fence that is more than two metres tall. That means the bear or bears had to find a hole in the fence somewhere, climb over it, or shimmy beneath it limbo-style.
Stewart said that based on size, it appears that two different bears have been captured on her wildlife camera. She won’t be able to confirm how many there are until she examines hair samples this fall.
Samples are collected when animals rub up against strands of wire that are wrapped around a baited tree.
“If they left hair on the tree, I should be able to identify the individual bear, and determine how many times, and how often it returned,” Stewart said.
Stewart has been studying fishers in the region since January with help from volunteers from the Friends of Elk Island Society and funding provided by Alberta-Parks and Alberta Innovates.
The mid-sized, carnivorous fur-bearing mammals were wiped out by trappers, but a population was re-established in the region in the 1990s.
Stewart uses beaver fat to lure fishers in winter, and a spread concocted out of skunk glands, fox urine and other assorted animal parts in summer. The odiferous aperitif also attracts coyotes, foxes, skunks and the rare meandering bear.
“It is smelly and tasty to them,” Stewart said, “but it’s pretty putrid when it gets to 27 C.”