BRAINERD — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is asking hunters and other recreationists spending time outdoors this fall to report the locations of bear dens they encounter in and around the Brainerd, Grand Rapids and Duluth areas. Bear researchers with the DNR and University of Minnesota Duluth hope to fit additional bears with GPS tracking collars this winter.

“Getting a few bears collared in winter would really help these studies,” said Andrew Tri, Minnesota DNR bear project leader, in a news release. “It would allow us to get a whole year of movement data, which we can’t do with bears that we catch and collar in mid-summer.”

The purpose of this research is to document bear movements on the landscape (both rural and urban) and assess the age of first reproduction in these

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