Researcher use hair to study grizzlies, wolverines

Kugluktuk hunters and wildlife biologists from the Government of Nunavut have found a way to avoid invasive research tactics in their latest survey of grizzly bears and wolverines.

Instead of tranquilizing, capturing or tagging any animals, the researchers will get the data they need by snagging hair samples from grizzlies and wolverines when the animals brush up against baited, barbed wire-wrapped poles.

That's why there are no photos of trapped or drugged animals attached to their research reports.

The three-year $1.2 million study, which is now underway, wants to produce population estimates, management recommendations and monitoring plans for grizzlies and wolverines.

Analyses of the hair collected will reveal much about the animals' sex, diet and health. These results, when combined with information from tooth and tissue samples furnished by hunters, can be used to determine these animals' range, population trends and even encounters with people.

The samples will also furnish genetic markers for each animal, which means they can be more easily tracked.

"Over the long-term, I think we can build something that shows the age structure [of the populations], but, for sure, it's not as concrete and reliable a way as capturing the animal, pulling the tooth and aging the animal," says Mathieu Dumond, a GN wildlife biologist in Kugluktuk.

But invasive techniques are much less expensive than mark-recapture animal surveys, which involve costly helicopter travel and specialized manpower.

"The cost of traditional mark-recapture on grizzly bears would be tremendous, and it would be tricky on wolverines," Dumond says.

Another advantage is the increased participation of local hunters from the Kugluktuk Angoniatiit Association, who may lack the technical skills required to work with mark-recapture surveys.

Exploration companies like Hornby Bay Exploration Co. and Triex Minerals helped fund the survey because it will provide the companies with baseline information for environmental impact statements.

Hair-snagging traps are straightforward contraptions, made of wooden beams about five-and-a-half-feet tall, which are anchored in the ground. A bait and lure are placed at the top of each post.

Wolverines leave hair on the barbs when climbing the post to reach the bait, while grizzly bears provide samples when they use the posts as convenient scratching posts. Hair samples are also collected from hunters and from cabins where grizzlies have broken in.

"The more hair we have, the more accurate our results will be," Dumond says.

The use of the posts, which have been used studies in the Northwest Territories, was tested out around Kugluktuk in an earlier pilot project.

Last summer, staff from the GN and local hunters started setting up more than 200 hundred posts in two grids spread over 48,000 square kilometres of land to the west and south of Kugluktuk.

The post placements are also linked to other research projects on vegetation, caribou and musk ox in the Kitikmeot.

"We've been trying to put layers together to have a better understanding about what's going on, " Dumond says.

Grizzlies and wolverines are both sensitive indicators of ecological change, due to their dependence on "large, connected and intact ecosystems," says the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

COSEWIC considers both species "of special concern" because they're easily affected by human activities and natural events and could see their numbers plunge due to development or over-hunting.

There are about 26,000 grizzlies in Canada, and, of these, 800 to 1,200 grizzlies are found around Kugluktuk. The grizzly population appears to be stable or slightly increasing, prompting community hunters to call for a higher quota.

GN statistics show that in 2007, hunters killed three grizzlies and sports hunters killed three. Another five grizzly kills were due to defense kills.

Studies show numbers of slow-reproducing grizzlies are particularly affected by hunting, poaching, accidents and nuisance or defense kills.

And, because grizzlies' behavior can bring them into conflict with people, the number of defense kills rise when human activities expand.

In many southern regions, wolverines already have been trapped out of existence, but Nunavut still has between 2,000 and 2,500 of the total western Canadian wolverine population of about 19,000.

The Kugluktuk Angoniatiit HTA says the population of wolverines around the community is stable.

About 200 wolverines are harvested every year around Kugluktuk, and, last year, the first wolverine died in a collision with a vehicle.

The fur of the wolverine, or "kalvik" in Innuinaqtun, is used as a warm, wind-resistant trim for parkas.

This summer, workers will start to check the hair-snagging posts for hair. Their hair collection will focus on grizzlies during the summer and wolverines in the winter.

The survey will continue until 2010.