Population Growth and Expansion of the Black Bear in Eastern Kentucky

Research efforts will use non-invasive techniques and traditional live trapping mark-recapture approaches in combination to document and analyze key demographic and spatial attributes that are important to the management of black bears in the Commonwealth. Findings will facilitate an imrpoved understanding of population dynamics as they relate to patterns of expansion, population growth, human-bear interactions that will inform management of the species, including the regulated harvest. This research project continues to document the distribution, relative abundance, population demographics, reproductive output, and habitat use of black bears in Kentucky. Data collected will be used to further our understanding about bear population expansion, population growth, and privide necessary data to refine demographic parameters required of predictive population models that in turn inform harvest levels.