Lake Tahoe, Nevada Winter Bear Study by Biologists Carl Lackey and Jon Beckmann seeking to determine survival rates of cubs............This, amidst Nevada's decision to have a bear hunting season............Additionally, some bears around the resort are beginning not to hibernate and instead feed off of human garbage which is leading to increasing conflicts with residents.......While garbage fed bears are able to fatten up and have larger litters of cubs, the conflicts they get into with us humans actually has fewer of those cubs growing into adults due to their wanderings leading them onto roadways where they are frequently killed

Scientists seek data, let sleeping bears lieBy Jeff DeLong •

How does one enter an occupied bear den?

Belly-down, face-first and with all due caution.Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist Carl Lackey demonstrated his technique one day last week in the mountains west of Washoe Valley.

After first darting an irritated mother black bear with tranquilizer -- an important step, that one -- Lackey squirmed beneath a granite slab and into a den so confined he "couldn't do a push-up."His instructions to a colleague were clear and spoken with emphasis."I'm going to have to go in head first and when I say pull me out, pull me out by my feet," Lackey said. "And pull me out."

After pushing aside the unconscious 130-pound mother bear, he was pulled free as asked.Lackey emerged from the hole with the day's true goal -- three yowling, newborn bear cubs.The cubs, two females and one male, four or five weeks old and weighing a couple of pounds each, were the scientific prize sought by Lackey and biologist Jon Beckmann of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The biologists are working to gain a better understanding of survival rates of bear cubs in the wild, part of an ongoing body of research that started in 1997 when increasing human-bear conflicts were first noticed in the Lake Tahoe area. The research comes against the backdrop of Nevada's controversial first bear hunt, set for later this year amid widespread public opposition.

Information regarding the cubs, including sex, health and color, was collected. Each was implanted with a microchip to aid with future identification.The well-intended home invasion lasted less than an hour, with the cubs and unconscious mother then returned into their den to sleep off the winter. The two scientists and companions then hurried from the hills, pelted by sleet from a quick-arriving storm.

Lackey and Beckmann raided three dens as part of their research last week. One, in the Pine Nut Mountains, contained a mother and three cubs just like the one west of Washoe Valley. In the third, they found an adult female with no cubs.

There were no big surprises. These bears were doing what they are supposed to do, bedding down during the winter months until spring brings more natural food, allowing them to wander the woods again probably sometime in April.
In the Lake Tahoe area, some bears don't bother to hibernate any more, taking advantage of easily-to-access garbage that actually allows them to gain weight during the winter, Lackey said.

The adult bears in the dens inspected last week had been fitted with radio collars during previous captures. Signals from the collars allowed researchers to locate the approximate location of the bears' winter dens from the air. The scientists then hiked by snowshoe into the area, finding the dens with hand-held radio equipment and a lot of scrambling over rugged terrain.

The cubs should still be with their mothers when they den again for the winter next year. The idea is to find them again, determining which cubs have survived their first year and which have not."The primary goal is to understand the trajectory of the population," Beckmann said. "How many new bears are being produced by the bears in Nevada?"

Earlier research by the two biologists has suggested that bears living close to humans near the Lake Tahoe area, often feeding off garbage, are producing larger litters of cubs. At the same time, more of those cubs are being hit by cars and killed, never reaching the breeding age of 3 or 4 years, at which they are technically considered to be part of the bear population.We want to see how many that are born actually get to that age," Beckmann said.