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 the first scientific survey of the state’s bear population in over a decade.
