Rapid: just-in-time north dakota black bear research

The National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education awarded United Tribes Technical College two hundred thousand dollars on July 1, 2026, under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) to conduct just-in-time research on North Dakota black bear populations in support of tribal college STEM capacity building.

The recipient will obtain non-invasive DNA samples from black bears using passive hair snares deployed across forested regions of North Dakota to establish population structure, survival rates, and movement patterns. DNA will be isolated from hair follicles and sequenced using genotyping-in-thousands methods to identify individual bears. The work supports a spatially-explicit capture-recapture study design needed to inform conservation management decisions as black bear populations recover in the state after vanishing in the early twentieth century and now show signs of breeding. The analytical framework and methods developed will be shared with other regions facing similar wildlife management questions.

United Tribes Technical College, a tribally owned, minority-serving institution and 1994 Land Grant College located in Bismarck, North Dakota, will perform the work. The award runs through June 30, 2027. No subawards are planned.

Abstract

A goal of the tribal colleges and universities program (tcup) is to increase the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) instructional and research capacities of the nation's tribal colleges and universities (tcus). Expanding the stem curricular and research offerings at these institutions expands the opportunities of their students to pursue challenging, rewarding careers in stem fields, provides for research studies in areas that may be culturally or scientifically significant, and encourages a community and generational appreciation for science and mathematics education. This project aligns directly with that goal. Black bear populations in north dakota vanished in the early 20TH century but are now recovering, and the first indications of breeding populations has led to the potential for legal hunting. Since the abundance, distribution, and density of these bears are not known, IT is crucial to obtain non-invasive DNA samples to establish population structure, survival, and movement of bears within the forested regions of the state. Samples will be obtained for a spatially-explicit capture-recapture (secr) study design using passive hair snares. DNA will be isolated from follicles and sequenced using genotyping-in-thousands (GT-SEQ) methods to identify individuals. IT is critical to obtain this information to inform conservation management decisions and establish an analytical framework model that can be shared with other regions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.