How do forest roads influence the stress response of black bears and grizzly bears?

Bureau of Land Management MiFO

Working Dogs 4 Conservation and University of Montana

Bear Stress Study

Field Collection Protocol

FINAL – 22/2/2019

Requirements

1.     Ziploc® bags and Paper bags

2.     Silica desiccant gel or beads (commercial or laboratory grade)

3.     Permanent marker pens

4.     Hand gloves (Latex rubber)

5.     Ice

6.     Cooler

Procedure

1.     Put on new gloves to handle each scat sample (if no gloves: use leaves, pebbles or twigs). Do not touch or handle scat sample with bare hands to limit contamination.

2.     Once a scat sample is identified, qualitatively divide it into age classes in the field (0–1 days, 2 days, ≤1 weeks) based on assessments of:

a.     Moisture (moist through- out; outside dry, inside moist and creamy; outside dry, inside moist and firm; dry throughout)

b.     Odor strength (very strong, strong, moderate, weak, undetectable)

c.     Presence–absence of mold

d.     Sample exposure, color, and contents were also recorded (Wasser et. al 2003).

3.     Place ~30 g of scat pile in a polyurethane screw-cap vial and place that inside a Ziploc® bag containing silica desiccant.

a.     Ensure minimal damage of scat morphology and transfer of other elements such as grass, sand, etc.

b.     To prevent cross contamination, place each individual scat sample in separate Ziploc® bag.

4.     Label both the vial and the Ziploc® collection bags using permanent markers with sample details – e.g. suspected species, GPS location, date, collecting person’s name, macro- and micro-habitat details, dog, and sample number.

5.     If the scat sample is very fresh and moist, add silica desiccant to the Ziploc® bag containing the paper bag in an approximate 4(silica):1(scat) w/w ratio. Reduce silica accordingly – no need to add silica if scat sample appears very dry and old.

6.     Store sample bags in a cooler with ice for transport to the laboratory for long term storage at -20°C and subsequent analyses (Cortisol & DNA extraction).

*we will modify the protocol in 2020 for thyroid hormone and progesterone sampling