"A ROSE by any other name" may smell as sweet to Juliet's family, but for the Pierson family in Connecticut, the only roses that count bear their own name.
Fish and Wildlife needs to pay close attention to the criticisms of its bear count and bear management plan.
For these communities, the increasingly detailed allegations of ballot-box stuffing, inconsistent registration lists and questionable vote counts bear out a historical trend.
As solitary and often nocturnal creatures — unlike, say, elk, which herd together and can be easily counted — bear numbers are guesses at best, scientists say, especially for poorly studied species like the black bear.
The study argues that the inaccuracy of previous counts means that biologists know less than they think and concludes that grizzly numbers appear to have increased simply because government biologists are working harder to count the bears.
Don't count these bears out just yet.
"We directly count the bears in numerous ways," says Chris Servheen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly recovery coordinator.
Last month, federal scientists released a preliminary count of bears in the Yellowstone Lake area based on hairs trapped on streamside barbed wire fur catchers.
It's notoriously hard to count grizzly bears due to their solitary nature and aversion to humans.
