Boston.com — An article about the state’s black bear population, which is rapidly growing and expanding eastward, includes comments from Thea Kristensen, biology laboratory coordinator at Amherst College and principal investigator on the MassBears project, as well as from student researcher Elizabeth Zhang ’24.
Reporter Ross Cristantiello explains some reasons for the ursine population surge in recent decades, and describes MassBears, “a project led by researchers affiliated with MassWildlife, Amherst College, UMass Amherst, and the United States Geological Survey [that] aims to survey black bears using hair snares and molecular science.” The project is an example of “citizen science,” as it is informed by reports of bear sightings from the general public.
“Increasingly, what we’re seeing and suspecting is that these bears in the east, in areas that have a higher human density, are more likely to approach human homes,” Zhang says.
But Kristensen reassures readers, “It’s actually extremely rare to have negative interactions with black bears… they’re not interested in eating people at all.” She says of the research project, “Bears are a really dynamic species and people are always excited about them, or nervous about them, so getting the public thinking about this and talking to us about it is a really positive step towards coexisting.”