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SCIENCETuesday 4 April 2017
APNewsBreak: Yosemite tracking daily journey of bears online
SCOTT SMITH This Nov. 1, 2016 photo provided by Drew Wharton shows a fe- The goal of the website is to walls.
Associated Press male black bear wearing GPS collar in Yosemite National Park. draw in the public so they The Yosemite Conservancy
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Wild- know to slow down while has spent $1.2 million since
life enthusiasts around the Associated Press driving and properly store 1998 to help the park man-
world can now follow the food when they visit the age bears. The latest project
daily journey of Yosemite leads the project. “It’s our A bear’s location is delayed park’s towering granite cliffs, cost $279,000, rangers said.
National Park’s black bears responsibility to keep bears so people aren’t tempted to charging waterfalls and abun- The tracking technology and
from their laptops and smart- wild. ... It’s not hard to do. track it down in real time, dant wildlife, including up to public website help rangers
phones, tracking the iconic You just need to know how to rangers said. But the tracking 500 black bears. Yosemite at- learn even more about bears’
animals as they lope up steep do it.” collars alert rangers so they tracted more than 5 million habits to protect them, said
canyons and cross vast dis- can block a bear from going visitors last year. Frank Dean, the conservan-
tances in search of food and to a campground or parking Too often, black bears — cy’s president, and it raises
mates. lot in search of food. which are actually brown — awareness among visitors
Park rangers told The Associ- are hit and killed by drivers about what they can do to
ated Press that they unveiled on Yosemite’s winding roads. save bears.
a website , Keep Bears Wild, Last year, 28 bears were “People love to see bears,”
on Monday showing where struck by cars, many fatally. Dean said. “Protecting them
select bears fitted with GPS The park has used up to 20 is something we can all do.”
collars are heading. The GPS collars for the last three Yosemite’s effort drew praise
tracking tool, which pings the years, learning that bears from Jesse Garcia, a black
bears’ steps from satellites, in the park begin mating in bear specialist with the Cali-
have already revealed sur- May, more than a month ear- fornia Department of Fish
prises, wildlife biologists say. lier than previously thought, and Wildlife. He said it’s im-
“I think people are going to rangers said. portant for park visitors to
be blown away,” said Ryan Leahy also said that the track- understand bears while in the
Leahy, a wildlife biologist at ing device shows that bears animals’ natural territory.
Yosemite National Park who move more than 30 miles (48 “You’ve got to give them
kilometers) in a day or two, their distance and always be
moving with ease up 5,000- aware, knowing that they’re
foot (1,524-meter) canyon there,” Garcia said.q
Scientists: Cod population in
New England drops 80 percent
BOSTON (AP) — Massachu- less than the population Republican Gov. Charlie
setts scientists say they have from a decade ago. Baker commissioned the
reached the same conclu- Micah Dean oversaw the survey last year after fisher-
sions as their federal coun- survey for the Massachu- men voiced concerns that
terparts in a study about setts Division of Marine Fish- the federal government
the poor status of cod fish eries. was relying on bad sci-
in the Gulf of Maine. He says he hopes fisher- ence and exaggerating
The Boston Globe reports men who doubted federal the cod’s distressed status.
the scientists found the re- government’s science on The state spent more than
gion’s cod are at a historic the issue will find the results $500,000 trawling for cod
low of about 80 percent credible. as part of the study.q
