Ronan resident to partake in Grizzly study
KARI ENEAS is joined by a furry friend as she explains a study she will begin working on in the coming months, dealing with grizzly bears. (Ashley Fox/Lake County Leader
University of Montana graduate student Kari Eneas is hoping to help raise Grizzly bear awareness within the next couple of years.
She will be part of a team including the Wildlife Program of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the University of Montana studying the animal’s actions as they navigate through the county.
The research will start next spring, once the bears come out of hibernation, and last two field seasons, or summers, and three academic years total.
“With this project, we’re really just hoping to understand the mindset of the (Grizzly) bear, kind of figure out why they move along the landscape like they do, and to see whether there’s a way we can see to alter that a little bit” to reduce interactions between the animals with livestock and humans with electric fencing.
The study will take place between St. Ignatius and Pablo, Eneas said.
She noted that over the last several years, Grizzlies have been going after livestock more often.
Her first step was putting out a public call to residents of Lake County, asking those who have electric fences or who wouldn’t mind electric fences around chicken coops.
“We’re still in the design phase,” she explained, adding that she and her team wanted to get the word out so that planning could begin.
Working with the Tribal Wildlife Manager Program since 2008, Eneas said she tried to choose a project in an area where the tribes have concern, benefitting the program along with her career.
Various species have been monitored for the last several years, prompting Eneas to want to include some of that data into whichever study she decided on.
Since it is in its infancy stages, Eneas said that the price of the study won’t be immediately known, but when it is, there are fellowships and scholarships as well as a private donor to help fund the effort.
Through global positioning systems, some female bears have been located hibernating in their dens, while some male bears have been a little more active, looking to add just a bit more weight before their months-long slumber.
Each year, the hibernation period varies due to food and weather, Eneas said.