Our 2019-2021 field activities spurred some exploratory work in the Canadian Rockies for army cutworm moths and possible interactions with grizzly bears, beginning in 2022. Our research originally planned to include the adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park and Akamina-Kishenena Provincial Park in Canada, but the 2020 pandemic prevented all field activities from occurring within those … Continue reading Note published in The Canadian Field Naturalist
Author: Erik Peterson
Manuscript published in Biological Conservation
Good news - The project manuscript for our 2019-2021 army cutworm moth-grizzly bear research in Glacier National Park will be published in the August 2026 issue of Biological Conservation! The manuscript is open access and available now through their website via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0006-3207(26)00203-X Check it out sometime and let us know what you think! … Continue reading Manuscript published in Biological Conservation
National Geographic Society Article
The National Geographic Society's former senior writer and editor Douglas Main recently published an article discussing the grizzly bear-army cutworm moth relationship along Continental Divide areas of the Rocky Mountains where their summer ranges overlap. The piece features remarkable photographs by Steven Gnam, who served as a field technician on our project for multiple field … Continue reading National Geographic Society Article
TWS Conference Poster – Rocks & Sky
On November 9th, we'll present our research findings during a poster session at The Wildlife Society's national conference in Spokane. The conference caters to folks in wildlife careers from students on up the professional ranks. The week long conference typically attracts around 2000 participants and is filled with research presentations, meetings, and events. Our poster, … Continue reading TWS Conference Poster – Rocks & Sky
Thesis Defense
On May 25th, 2022 I presented the findings of my graduate research. The presentation is one of two parts of a thesis defense. I was fortunate to pass my defense and earn my Masters degree that day. If you would like to view my presentation, you can do so on YouTube, viewable below: https://youtu.be/f7qqJq9QC9Y The … Continue reading Thesis Defense
2021 Field Results
We documented 65 grizzly bear groups foraging in 9 of 29 survey units and recorded different levels of army cutworm moth abundance at two close proximity survey units
Honoring Burt Bjorling
Our friend and field technician, Burt Bjorling, passed away in September, shortly after completing his tremendous voluntary contributions to project field operations. Photo: Steven Gnam In the summers of 2019 and 2021 Burt worked in a full-time capacity, step-in-step with project field technicians half his age. https://videopress.com/v/I4yNix1h?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true All who worked with Burt appreciated his goodwill, … Continue reading Honoring Burt Bjorling
Help us crowdfund for a summer 2021 field technician
Are you interested in helping to fund our field research? We've launched an online campaign at https://experiment.com/bearbutter to crowdfund $5040 to hire one full-time field technician this summer, our last season of data collection. Our operating budget for the summer will be using carryover funds from 2020 and is insufficient to support a paid field … Continue reading Help us crowdfund for a summer 2021 field technician
2020 Field Results
We covered a lot of ground and air in 2020! A dozen field techs contributed to one or more ground survey efforts in Glacier National Park. Due to COVID-19, we unfortunately weren't able to ground survey areas in Akamina-Kishinena Provincial Park or Waterton Lakes National Park. However, we conducted our aerial surveys as planned, with … Continue reading 2020 Field Results
Team Army 2020
Just like you, the last year has been full of challenges, stress, and uncertainty due to COVID-19. Particularly concerning for our project, 2020 was slated to be our 'big' field season, staffed by a squad of field technicians. Thanks to open dialogue among project collaborators and a shared interest in taking proactive mitigation measures, our … Continue reading Team Army 2020
Bear Butter 