PEND OREILLE, Wash. — Across Northeast Washington, small snares are set for grizzly bears that pass through the area.
These traps are set by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and aren’t harmful to the bears.
They are a non-invasive wildlife research tool set to catch hair from the bears for WDFW biologists.
The lures don’t just work on grizzly bears, but black bears as well.
They are set on barbed wire fences that draw the bears in.
As the bears crawl through or past the snares, they leave behind bits of their DNA.
Biologists later collect this DNA to help track individual bears that travel through the area.
On the WDFW website, grizzly populations are very small and isolated in the state.
For the most part, grizzly bear populations are only found in the Selkirk Mountains.
The Selkirk Mountains range is located in Southeast British Columbia, Northeast Washington, and Northern Idaho.
The Selkirk Mountains are very close to the Canadian border.
These traps help biologists carefully track bear populations whose numbers have decreased due to the invasion of their homes across the state.
Biologists hope that these lures will help monitor the recovery of these bears, who have been important to the ecosystem of the Northern Cascade Mountains.
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