The Department of Natural Resources is asking bear hunters be on the lookout and avoid shooting bears with radio collars when Minnesota's bear season begins Monday.
DNR researchers are monitoring about 30 radio-collared black bears, most of them in the "no-quota" area of northwestern Minnesota near Thief Lake, New Main, Twin Lakes, Pelan, Beaches Lake, Skull Lake and Caribou wildlife management areas and the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge.
"Hunters near these areas should be especially vigilant for collared bears," said Dave Garshelis, bear research biologist for the DNR in Grand Rapids, Minn. "But bears, especially those that live at the edge of Minnesota's bear range, travel widely looking for food in the fall and may move up to 50 miles away from their normal summer home range."
Additional radio-collared bears reside in areas in and around the Chippewa National Forest, Camp Ripley, Cloquet Forestry Station and Voyageurs National Park. The Wildlife Research Institute near Ely, Minn., is monitoring an additional 15 bears.
Most of the monitored bears are fitted with highly visible blaze orange-colored collars. Many of the collars contain GPS devices that collect and store data that is downloaded when researchers visit the bears in their winter dens.
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"We're asking that hunters find other bears to harvest," Garshelis said. "Researchers have invested an enormous amount of time and expense in these individuals, and the data stored in their collars is extremely valuable for monitoring the dynamics of our bear population."
DNR officials recognize that a hunter may not be able to see a radio collar in some situations, and taking a bear with a collar is legal unless the bear is accompanied by a researcher who has identified the bear to the hunter as a research animal.
"We're simply asking hunters to cooperate with research efforts, which provides information that helps wildlife professionals monitor and manage the bear population," Garshelis said. "Ultimately, much of this information benefits hunters as well as researchers."
Any hunters who shoot collared bears should call the DNR Wildlife Research Office in Grand Rapids at (218) 327-4146 or (218) 327-4133.
