Hands-on experience. In almost any career, having that line on a resume is a huge benefit. When that career is wildlife ecology, just what you get your hands on can be pretty interesting. Take Taylor Schaeffer, a senior at WSU who majoring in wildlife ecology and a volunteer at the WSU Bear Research, Education, and […]
The bears will soon head off to hibernation, wrapping up another busy and educational year at the WSU Bear Research, Education, and Conservation Center. Traditionally, our WSU bears begin going into hibernation around November 1. The last day they are given food is October 31, though they have been tapering off in their meals for […]
Work at the WSU Bear Research, Education, and Conservation Center goes well beyond important things like enrichment programs and energy-monitoring collars. WSU scientists are looking at the genomic level to try and determine the myriad number of ways that bears adapt to their climate. Joanna Kelley, an evolutionary geneticist and assistant professor in WSU’s School […]
Our bears at the WSU Bear Center are here to advance knowledge of grizzly bears as a whole, not just for WSU research. Along those lines, Ryan Long, an assistant professor at the University of Idaho, and Savannah Rogers, a UI graduate student, are working on a project with WSU’s Charlie Robbins. Long’s research focuses […]
If bears are fed during hibernation, they wake up. But not completely. That’s the preliminary finding from a research study conducted this winter at the WSU Bear Research, Education, and Conservation Center, where scientists fed seven bears glucose every day for 10 days. Four WSU bears were not fed during hibernation, serving as the control […]
This summer at the WSU Bear Research, Education, and Conservation Center, energy use is the order of the day. From cardiac monitors to special collars to foraging experiments, WSU researchers are trying to figure how bears gather energy and then spend it. “Bears in the wild have a very short time window to make their […]
Giving students a real-world assignment makes their classwork feel more worthwhile and can let their passions come through in a way a stock assignment may not. This past academic year, two WSU School of Design…
There’s camping, then there’s Alaska back-country, grizzly bear scientific research camping. That’s how WSU Ph.D. student Joy Erlenbach has spent the past three summers, and where she is right now. “We get dropped off in the middle of Katmai National Park by a float plane, then we’re on our own for a month,” Erlenbach said […]
The WSU Bear Research, Education, and Conservation Center has been on the WSU Pullman campus for over 30 years, changing the way humans understand these amazing animals. Established in 1986, the center consists of six indoor dens with outdoor runs and a 2.2-acre exercise yard for the grizzlies. All of the original bears at the […]