A wildlife study at the National Guard’s training post in north Florida may soon give biologists insight into one of the state’s most intriguing inhabitants.

The two-year study of Florida black bears at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center near Starke began this summer, and will be looking into the movement patterns and behavioral habits of the omnivorous mammals on the military site.

The study is a partnership between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Camp Blanding, and may help answer questions about what appears to be an expanding bear population at the 72,000-acre training site.

“We want to see what the bears are doing here on Blanding, because we are seeing more and more bears everywhere,” Camp Blanding Environmental Manager Paul Catlett explained. “I’ve got guys who have worked here for 35 years, and in the last five years have seen their first bear … Is it the fact that there are more bears now or the fact that they are losing habitat?”

Catlett, who lives on the post and has been working there for 17 years, said he thinks there are just more bear sightings because the population of the animals has gradually increased. He said sightings can spike when their habitats are encroached upon by development, but that doesn’t appear to be the case at Blanding.

A robust bear population on the post could mean the habitat here is strong and healthy, Catlett said.

“As a land manager I want to know that we’re doing the right things; that we’re having a positive influence,” he said. “It’s possible this is a sign that the habitat is strong and we’re doing the right things here.”

Black bears are the only species of bear found in Florida, and the FWC estimates there are between 2,500 and 3,000 black bears in the state. Adult bears weigh between 125 to 450 pounds, and can be found anywhere in Florida.

The study itself is simple: biologists and volunteers place specialized tracking collars on the bears and follow their movements around the area via radio signals. The movements are plotted on a map with a latitude and longitude point for each signal, letting the team see when the bears move and where exactly they go.

Getting the collars on the wild animals is a much more complicated matter.

The study-team pinpoints high “bear-traffic” areas on Camp Blanding, sets snares at the sites, and places scent lures (usually glazed donuts or fabric soaked in bacon fat) around the area. When a curious bear sniffs his way to the site and gets caught in the snare, a radio signal lets the team know it has a catch. The captured bear is then tranquilized, weighed tagged, and fitted with the tracking collar.

FWC technicians measure a Florida black bear captured at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, Fla., this summer. The bear was tranquilized, measured, tagged, and is being tracked by Florida Fish and Wildlife biologists using a specialized collar. Photo courtesy Camp Blanding Enviornmental Office.

“We can respond quickly, dart them, and get them out of the snare,” explained Walter McCown, an FWC research biologist who specializes in bears.

After an hour or two the bear wakes up from the effects of the tranquilizer and is sent back into the forest.

“These collars are actually quite sophisticated,” McCown explained. “They will acquire positions from GPS satellites and report the positions through a text message to a ground base on my computer. We don’t have to follow them around. We’ll be getting 24 to 27 locations a day, which we will use to identify travel-ways for bears.”

The collared bear will get used to the device around its neck after a couple of days, McCown said. The thick leather collar weighs less than four pounds with the attached battery pack, and is programmed to drop off the bear’s neck after about two years.

McCown and the study group have already identified and collared five bears on Camp Blanding, and have collared an additional two bears that were off the post. Five of the bears were males – the largest male captured weighed 320 pounds. The FWC is receiving data from each collar and sharing the results with two local schools to help educate children and dispel misconceptions about the animals.

“Many people in Florida are surprised we actually have bears here,” McCown, who has been studying the mammals for 15 years, said. “They are not aware of it, although bears are becoming more of an issue in this state. I think part of my mission is to spread information about how neat bears are, how to live with bears, and the value of preserving and maintaining the bear populations in the state.”

Another result of the ongoing study may clear up a bit of a mystery surrounding the bear population on Camp Blanding; it could explain why the black bears at the base all seem to have migrated from Ocala National Forest about 25 miles away.

Since the training base sits midway in a natural corridor between the sprawling Ocala National Forest to the south and the smaller Osceola National Forest to the north, biologists might expect to find bears from both forests at Camp Blanding. However, according to Catlett a previous study of the Blanding bear population found that it shared DNA exclusively with the Ocala bears.

Both Catlett and McCown said the data from this current study may help determine if the Ocala or Osceola bears are avoiding certain areas during their movements or are deterred by specific roads or other obstacles to travel between the two forests. The data could possibly be used to help connect parcels of land to facilitate the bear movement and create additional conservation easements if warranted.

Based on initial data McCown said he thinks there are only a few resident bears on Camp Blanding, but other bears pass through regularly due to their penchant for the thick bottomland hardwood and well-preserved swampy areas of the post.

“There are maybe four to five resident animals now, but I hope there will be more in the future,” he said.

Story by Master Sgt. Thomas Kielbasa
DVIDS

Joint Base Lewis-McChord has been invaded. The enemy is large, black and steals all the food it can find. This summer, JBLM has had to deal with a black bear problem.

Black bear released in wilderness far from Joint Base Lewis-McChord

Last month a police car came tearing into the parking lot of a Joint Base Lewis-McChord shopette, lights on and sirens blaring — to pick up a box of doughnuts.

“This is a police emergency,” the military police officer told the clerk as he rushed passed the register. “We’ll be back to pay for these.”

It might sound like the punch line of a joke, but the doughnuts were needed to lure a bear sighted near the New Hillside housing area. The bear was caught (and the doughnuts were paid for), but the situation is becoming increasingly common at JBLM.

The 198-pound female black bear was one of three captured in a four-week period this summer, all around Miller Hill. While the animals are frequently seen foraging for food in the late summer and fall, there have been more spotted on base this year than ever before.

While the bears might be fun to look at, officers are reminding base residents that wild animals and human beings don’t mix.

“The thing we don’t want is bad bear-human contact,” said Lt. Chris Enoch of the JBLM Training Area Patrol Division, which is responsible for capturing the bears.

The increase in bears seen on base has led to more traps being laid, and more successful captures. But while there haven’t been any negative encounters so far black bears are far from cuddly, especially when they get comfortable in a human environment.

“The more they get used to people, the more dangerous they become,” explained Officer Bruce Richards of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Richards, who has worked for Fish and Wildlife for 38 years, has helped with several relocations of bears caught on base this summer. If the animal hasn’t harmed anyone by the time it’s caught, it must be turned over the state to be released back into the wild.

On Aug. 3, a 220-pound male bear got a taste of the experience, which is intended to teach them to stay away from humans in the future. After following the scent of bear bait (the recipe includes doughnuts, bacon grease and other secret ingredients), he was towed high into the Cascades where Richards, law enforcement officials and a dog named Mishka put his fight or flight instincts to the test.

“For him, this is a life or death situation right now,” Richards said as he waited to open the trap and let the bear out.

Mishka, a Karelian bear dog who helps Fish and Wildlife officers track and scare off bears, had been allowed to bark and growl at the bear starting a good 20 minutes before the release. His presence had a clear purpose — to let the other animal know that when the door opened, he would have to choose between fighting and running away.

When the gate finally opened, the bear was given a brief head start. He pushed out of the trap as officers yelled and shot beanbags at him. The idea is to condition the animals to fear, and avoid, humans.

In these situations, one officer always has a gun with live ammunition, in case the situation gets out of hand.

On this particular afternoon, everything went according to plan. The bear ran for the woods, and Mishka was released a moment later so he could push him farther off the road. The bear ended up in a tree, and Mishka was called back to his bed in the back of Richards’ truck.

The animals are never killed unless they have to be.

“I try to give the bear the best chance for survival,” Richards said.

Part of that includes taking them far from the signs of civilization that tempted them down from the woods to begin with — but the best option is to prevent them from coming in the first place.

The more people dump garbage in wooded areas around their homes, or even leave dog food bins and garbage cans unsecured, the more likely bears are to come searching for them. Black bears can smell birdseed up to a mile away, according to Richards, and delicious items like uncleaned barbecues from even farther.

“All this is, is it’s inviting these animals to come down and see you,” TAPD Officer Christopher Pekema said.

It’s not a visit JBLM residents should welcome. The bears are strong and very, very fast, and generally not something people should mess with.

“You can’t outrun a black bear,” he said.

Instead, people should stay calm, and resist the urge to grab their cell phones for photos. The best-case scenario, of course, is preventing any human contact to begin with. That way bears can keep living their lives — as far away from people as possible.

“He really didn’t do anything wrong, so there’s no sense destroying the animal,” Pekema said of the male bear recently released. “We’re just moving him back into a more conducive environment for him.”

By Marisa Petrich, Northwest Guardian
U.S. Army