On Kodiak Island people often live and work in close proximity to the local population of brown bear; the 1.9 million acre Refuge has the highest density of bear anywhere in the world, about one for every 1.5 square miles.  While bear sightings are common, it is more rare to experience the rugged landscape from a bear's perspective: foraging for food, ranging across mountains and through alder thickets, and bedding down in remote meadows...

2010 is the first year of a two-year study to collar and track several Kodiak Brown Bears within the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, researching their movement patterns, habitat, and food availability.  A diverse group of volunteers have contributed their field experience and time to assist Refuge biologists in collecting data throughout the summer - find out more about a week in their season! 

Volunteers and staff are stationed for the summer at KNWR's remote field station, Camp Island, in the middle of Karluk Lake on the south end of Kodiak Island. The lake is about 45 minutes by float plane from the City of Kodiak, and the field station is comfortable but without many modern amenities such as the internet and constant electricity.  Camp Island is a communal facility: crews share a bunkhouse, dining room, makeshift GIS lab, and living area when they are not staying in tents and backpacking during field work.  The Bear Monitoring crew has five full time volunteers, one technician and one Refuge biologist - over 80 people initially applied to volunteer on the project this summer! 

The crew typically spends a few days during the middle of each week in camp; this is the time to sort gear, organize data, and plan the weekend's field work.  A Refuge pilot coordinates with the crew to fly telemetry during these days; antennae attached to the plane wings pick up the signals for each of the eight bears being tracked, and a crew member downloads the GPS points transmitted from the bear's collar to a laptop in the plane.

Back at camp the crew analyzes the week's data points - as the bear moves throughout the area, the GPS collar monitors it's activity for five minutes every hour and assigns a latitude and longitude to each time recorded.  The researchers can then map each bear's movement during the previous week.

Once the GPS data is collected, the technician selects eight points for each bear and the volunteers prepare for four days of challenging field work.  Hiking to each of the identified locations, they conduct botanical surveys to identify what kinds of plant forage is available for the bear in the area.  They also record evidence of feeding, trails, and bedding near the survey. 

Volunteers and staff conduct the field work in pairs of two, often backpacking and spending several consecutive days in the field to cover the same amount of terrain as the bears they are tracking.  There are no established routes - although the crew can occasionally utilize bear trails, they also often must travel through thick vegetation, swamps, and high mountain ridges without a clear path.  Though the environment and weather can be hostile, the volunteers are persistent and dedicated; their work is an amazing contribution to this year's Refuge research!

-Check back for updates throughout the summer-