Regional bears are being bribed by the smell of sardines to participate in a survey.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says bears are being lured into a barbed-wire hair trap in forests around the region. Outreach Specialist Karen Passmore says the bears in go under a sting of barded-wire to get the food, while the wire is collecting a hair sample.
Passmore says it’s important to gather this information for both MNRF stats and for hunters. She says the survey traps will be marked with both signs and flags. She adds that workers will be in and out of the forest monitoring them as well.Â
Passmore says the MNRF has done this survey for a few years to gather ongoing information on the bear population in the region.