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How Many Bears Are There in CT? Here’s What It Takes to Find Out.
Researchers have collected about 850 hair samples to identify individual black bears and update a population estimate older than a decade.
- Connecticut researchers are conducting a scientific survey to estimate the state's bear population using DNA hair samples, updating data for the first time in over a decade.
- The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection estimates Connecticut's bear population has grown to around 1,000 to 1,200 individuals, driving thousands of annual human-bear confrontations and over 50 home entries reported in 2026.
- Each weekday morning, a 10-person team collects hair samples from 340 sites across 17 clusters using barbed wire traps and scented lures for analysis by Dana Morin, principal investigator at Mississippi State University lab.
- Using "spatial capture-recapture," Morin calculates population density from the samples, with the $400,000 to $500,000 survey funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- After collecting about 850 hair samples since June, researchers will conclude fieldwork later this month and conduct several months of genetic testing to produce a final population estimate.
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14 Articles
Connecticut is counting bears
As it would for the typical U.S. Census taker, the work of counting bears in the woods starts with a clipboard and a blank piece of paper. Armed with this equipment — along with bear spray and, perhaps more importantly, tick repellent — a team of researchers has been fanning out to hundreds of survey stations set up across western Connecticut this summer to collect data on the area’s resident population of black bears. Their goal is to conduct t…
·Warren, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources14
Leaning Left8Leaning Right1Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution57% Left
Bias Distribution
- 57% of the sources lean Left
57% Left
L 57%
C 36%
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