September 30, 2023 • 39 mins
Black Bears in Texas with Amanda M. Veals Dutt, PhD Amanda M. Veals Dutt, PhD, Carnivore Specialist and Research Scientist, Borderlands Research Institute, Sul Ross State University.
Dr. Dutt is the Carnivore Specialist and post-doctoral Research Scientist at Borderlands Research Institute. Her research focuses on the spatial ecology and interspecific interactions between mammalian predators, such as black bears and mountain lions, and their prey. Her research in the Trans-Pecos aims to inform management decisions and habitat conservation. Before coming to BRI, Amanda graduated in 2014 with a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of Arizona. During her undergraduate career, Amanda assisted on several carnivore research projects and worked in Namibia on caracals (African lynx), where her passion for carnivore conservation and management began. She earned her MS degree from the University of Arizona in Wildlife Conservation and Management in 2018, studying gray fox spatial ecology. Her thesis research informed disease management through an understanding of interspecific interactions among mesocarnivores.
Amanda completed her PhD in Wildlife Sciences from Texas A&M University-Kingsville with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in 2021. Her dissertation focused on the endangered ocelot in an effort to reduce road mortalities. Amanda focused on ocelot spatial ecology and landscape connectivity using four decades of data. Amanda’s research program at BRI seeks to link ecology with applied conservation and management strategies. She has strong interests in spatial and landscape ecology, interspecific interactions, and predator-prey dynamics.
Dr. Dutt is the Carnivore Specialist and post-doctoral Research Scientist at Borderlands Research Institute. Her research focuses on the spatial ecology and interspecific interactions between mammalian predators, such as black bears and mountain lions, and their prey. Her research in the Trans-Pecos aims to inform management decisions and habitat conservation. Before coming to BRI, Amanda graduated in 2014 with a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of Arizona. During her undergraduate career, Amanda assisted on several carnivore research projects and worked in Namibia on caracals (African lynx), where her passion for carnivore conservation and management began. She earned her MS degree from the University of Arizona in Wildlife Conservation and Management in 2018, studying gray fox spatial ecology. Her thesis research informed disease management through an understanding of interspecific interactions among mesocarnivores.
Amanda completed her PhD in Wildlife Sciences from Texas A&M University-Kingsville with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in 2021. Her dissertation focused on the endangered ocelot in an effort to reduce road mortalities. Amanda focused on ocelot spatial ecology and landscape connectivity using four decades of data. Amanda’s research program at BRI seeks to link ecology with applied conservation and management strategies. She has strong interests in spatial and landscape ecology, interspecific interactions, and predator-prey dynamics.
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(00:00):
The Houston Safari Club Foundation is afive zero one C three nonprofit organization that
supports the future of hunting and conservation. Wildlife and habitat conservation, youth education
and outdoor experiences, scholarships, andanti poaching efforts are just a few of
the programs supported by this organization.Monthly events, an annual convention, award
winning publications, networking opportunities, andvaluable resources for hunting knowledge or just a
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few of the benefits of being amember of Houston Safari Club Foundation. If
you're searching for a group of peoplededicated to protecting the future of hunting,
look no further. Join Houston SafariClub Foundation today at we Hunt weegive dot
org or call seven one three sixtwo three eight eight four four. Tradition,
conservation, family, the outdoors.It matters to you, It matters
(00:47):
to us. This is Hunting Matters, presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe b. Tar. Goodmorning and welcome to Hunting Matters on kPr
C nine fifty. This is JoeBat. I'm Ramon Roebliss. How's that
level of yours? It's good?Is it all right? I had to
crank it up there. This islive radio. This is why it turned
down. You can turn it down. Just a hair turned out, hair
(01:10):
perfect scoche. Actually, yeah,radio terminal. I'm getting old deaf on
one side, hard of hearing onthe deck, and then I get it.
We just got back from a weekendlong casting blast down in South Texas.
My buddy shout out to Leo Martinez, the ranch manager at da ranch
host Us. We did uh,we did dove hunts Friday afternoon and Saturday
afternoon and Sunday morning, and thenhe took us down with the coast down
(01:30):
into the Lagoon of Madre and wefished for trout and red's. Oh nice.
We had a really good weekend,great, great group of guys and
a lot of fun. A lotof fun now casting blasts. You know,
I'm a novice at these kinds ofthings. So casting blasts I would
assume is you cast the rod andthen whatever you get on the hook you
shoot with the gun. Yeah.You jerked the fish out of the water
(01:52):
and we blast him. Yeah.Yeah, oh nice. You've never been
ever. No sounds fun. Yeah, I think you could get into it.
Yeah, none, that's not it. For those listening that don't know
what a caston blast is. No, we just we dove hunted and saltwater
fished, and it was it was, it was. It was cool,
it was hot, it was verywindy, but we still had a great
(02:12):
time. Okay. Anytime you getoutdoors and hang out with a bunch of
people, it got to meet afew new people, so that's always fun
as well. And uh, likeI said, Leo Martinez and his daughter
Madison, and the Angela, thechef down there, and the entire crew,
they're just always accommodating folks. I'mgonna give a shameless plug here if
you're looking for a place to go, hunt, hang out, whatever,
d e a ranch check them outdown in South Texas. And I know
(02:34):
you're asking, d I know,I see your brain working, Da.
No, it's not drug enforcement ages, dancing elk Alexander Ranch, Okay.
And the reason it's named that becauseI thought the same thing when I first
went. Doctor Alexander, who ownsit, is a neurosurgeon from Corpus and
he loves elk okay, and he'sgot elk all over the property, which
is really cool. They got it, but oh man, they had the
(02:54):
cutest little thing I'm so excited.Yeah, like a judge, the circus
boy with the shiny new pet.He they had a baby draft that was
just born last week which was runningaround. It's so cool. And they've
got a lot of their spring,you know, offspring that coming out of
the all the exotics and the whitetails and stuff they got run around there.
So it's like a big nursery rightnow. It's it's very cool.
(03:15):
Now, let me ask you thisquestion. I'm pulling up the website right
now. Is this a place whereI could just bring the family. We
can just go and amander? Dowe have to go hunting? No,
you don't have to hunt. Legois very accommodating. Okay, you can
check. You can. There's neverbeen anything I've asked of him that he
got. No, we can makeit that work. Okay. I've known
him for years. He was actuallyaffiliated with another ranch years and years ago.
(03:36):
That's where we met. And No. The cool thing about that places.
Again, I sound like a commercial, but they have hunting of all
sorts, bird hunting, big gamehunting, exotic hunting, native white tail.
But they also have a giant weddingvenue out there as well, so
you can throw a party. They'veHe's told me stories about people who going
out there and been deaf hunting thatmorning and then come inside, get dressing
and get married two hours later andthey're all out there take it or taking
(04:00):
wedding photos and their camouflage. Thisis pretty cool. Yeah, but yeah,
it's it's a cool place. No, you could take the boys out
there. They've got giraffs, they'vegot zebras. They can't hunt the drafts.
Uh no, Okay, they've gota giraff that's a two year old
that they're they're trying to get raisedand calm down there. Two year old
draft is like a fourteen year oldboy. That's funny, best way to
describe it. So yeah, darans check them out. Pretty pretty cool
(04:25):
set up down there, and they'reonly like an hour and a half from
San Antonio. So if you wantto do that for a couple of days
and then take your always down toPorto Ransus or Corpus, you're an hour
about an hour hour and a halfaway from there. So yep. Anyway,
I digress Houston's Fart Club Foundation.What is happening with them a lot
of cool stuff going on, Likewe talked about every week. October fifth
is the annual Sporting Club Oh that'sI'll be late for that. Never mind.
(04:47):
Oh no, no, no,no, that's next week. Sorry,
Okay. October five is the annualSporting Place tournament. You can still
sign up for. It's gonna beat a Greater Houston Sports Club. Doesn't
matter if you're a novice or ora professional. It's just a fun day.
And in the afternoon. We're gonnastart at two, ended up with
dinner at seven, so we're havingan afternoon afternoon start this year. Tomorrow
is October. Yes, I know, I know. I just realized that
(05:11):
when you said that at that No, that's not until October. That's why
I was My days were gentle.I'm like, I didn't September just start
man year old. I know,as evidence by the Gray Beard. And
then November eight, we are goingto have a course at the Houston spar
Our Club Foundation offices, which isfirst aid for gunshot gunshot wound victims,
which, unfortunately and sadly, wehave to consider those things if we're out
(05:31):
of public place and somebody happens toget shot. But that's gonna be no
Vemberrade so you can go to wehunt we give dot org. You can
sign up for a membership, youcan sign up for one of the events.
Even if you're not a member.Come on out and see what we're
about. And we'd love to seeyou our guest today. This is this
is a thrill for me, andthe reason is I love bears and I
love carnivores, and I've grown tolove them more and more as I've gotten
(05:54):
older. I don't know why.But doctor Amanda Veale's dutt who's a PhD.
And we're gonna talk about all ourspecialties and what she's done in her
career. But she's joining us todayand she's affiliated with the Borderland's Research Institute
out in West Texas. So doctor, thank you so much for joining us
(06:15):
today. Thank you for having me. It's great to join you, and
I'm so happy to hear you.Your love of carnivors is only growing over
of the years. Yeah, itreally has, it really has. So
let's talk about We've got you know, we got five minutes left in this
segment, so I kind of wantto dig into a little bit about about
your background before we talk about blackbears and Texas and some of the cool,
(06:38):
cool stuff that's going on here.So you're a carnivore specialist, which
sounds really cool. It sounds likea superhero. So can you tell our
audience what a carnivore specialist is?Yeah, it's honestly my dream job.
I won't lie. Growing up alwayskind of watching the nature shows, and
(06:59):
as I got older, getting outsidemore through the traditional means, it was
always carnivores that I fell in lovewith. And basically what I do is
I manage all of our research projectsat Borderlands Research Institutes that are focused in
any way on carnivores. And socurrently that is a very large black bear
project that will get into and alittle bit, but it is also touched
(07:24):
on mountain lions and smaller carnivores likebobcats, gray foxes, kit foxes,
that kind of nature right, right, And I'm kind of like prefacing the
rest of our conversation with kind ofa little dictionary here for myself, Remone
and for our audience, because there'ssome things here that you've been involved with
and that you're currently working with.We really don't know what they are.
So just to talk a little bitin the last minute before we go to
(07:47):
the break. What is spatial ecologybecause I know that you work a lot
with that. Yeah, So spatiallyecology is really how animals interact with the
landscape around them, and so it'sa very broad definition, but it's basically
where are they going, why arethey there? And the methods that we
use to answer those questions and that. So that involves when you talk about
(08:11):
special ecology, that involves their theirspace and interaction with each other's as well
as their environment. Correct, ittends to be more focused on just the
environment, but there is very muchan intertwined nature with how they interact with
other species as well as other membersof the same species. Got it very
cool? All right? Going totake a week quick break here on Hunting
(08:31):
Matters KPRC nine fifty. You hadto do it, didn't you. Yeah,
(09:16):
of course, hung like a well, yeah, in honor of our
guest today on your I can't waitto see what Net? What's what's coming
up next? Your on your Carnivoreplaylist? Welcome back to Hunting Matters KPRC
nine fifty. This is Joe BatoI am Ramone Rubless and joining us stay
as our guest doctor Amandaville's Dutt,who is a PhD carnivore specialist and research
(09:39):
scientists with the Borderland's Research Interests Instituteout at Saul Rush University. Doctor,
thank you so much once again forjoining us. Thank you again for having
me. I've loved the music choice. By the way, you just he
always catches me off guard. Younever know what he's got going. He's
already probably got four songs already alreadyin the queue for for carniv related conversations.
(10:03):
So you know, the Houston SquarClub Foundation has done a lot of
work over the past many years asfar as supporting the projects with the staff
and the students out at Saul RossUniversity. But can you tell tell the
audience a little bit about what isthe Borderlands Research Institute, because I don't
think a lot of people know knowwhat BRII really is and how impactful they
(10:24):
are on conservation of wildlife and habitatin state of Texas and beyond. Yeah,
So we are a research institute housedwithin Flock State University, and we're
all the way out there in Alpinein far West Texas, so we're not
far from Big Ben National Park andour focus is to work on the borderlands
(10:50):
of western Texas in the Chihuahuan Desert, and we do that through research,
education, outreach, and then yeah, so education is the component with the
graduate students and our undergraduates in ourprogram, and then of course outreaches through
our work with the general public,hunters, landowners. And then research is
(11:13):
kind of more my specialty where we'reactually on the ground trying to understand animal
behavior. Yeah, it's it's amazing. Uh, you know the things that
that you guys study out there inWest Sex, which is, by the
way, is one of my favoriteparts of Texas. I love that part
of the country. It's it's likea whole new world out there. And
you were talking earlier, you knowabout elevations. You want to get some
(11:35):
elevations, go out and that's outof the stuff. It's pretty cool.
I don't spend enough time out there. I'll take you. Let's go,
man, you to the boys wouldlove big band. I'm curious how did
you embark on your career in thisfield of study. Was this something you
had always wanted to do, Wasit something that you fell into or something
that you decided on later in life, or how did how did you this
(11:56):
coming, Because this this career choiceand field of study is really unique,
it really is, and I feelreally lucky to be in this field.
But I honestly didn't know about itwhen I was younger. I went to
college to be a biochemist, andthen I took my first biology ecology course,
and you know, I was learningabout plant and animal interactions and I
(12:20):
was like, Wow, this isway more interesting than chemistry lab. Let's
go talk to some folks in thatdepartment. And that's when I discovered the
world of wildlife conservation and management.And then after finished being my bachelor's degree
at the University of Arizona, Istayed on for my master's degree there and
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that's really when I would say mywildlife focused career took off. And from
there it's just been various opportunities towork on different projects in different areas,
all focused on furnivores, and it'sbeen truly special to say at least,
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did you always have a love ofthe outdoors? I mean, you know,
you talked about you changed kind ofcareer paths, but did you always
have a love for the outdoors?I really did. I'm not a traditional
hunter in the sense that I didn'tgrow up hunting, but I grew up
hiking and camping. And then itwasn't until I found my way into a
world of wildlife conservation that I evenknew folks who hunted and they were able
(13:33):
to take me out and they reallysparked that love of another way to connect
with the land and with animals.And yeah, now I'm an avid hunter,
and I think it gives me adeeper appreciation for everything that folks in
my field are trying to do.So yeah, I always had a love
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of the outdoors, but I thinkit's only grown as I've gotten exposed to
more ways to enjoy the outdoors.Right, right, So you were talking
about your studies earlier. Now youcompleted your PhD and Wall of Sciences from
Texas A and M University Kingsville,and then you did work with the Caesar
Clearburg Wildlife Research Institute as well.That's you know, that's two prestigious institutions
(14:16):
down and anybody from Texas knows theCaesar Cleeburg name, So I'm sure that
was that was a pretty pretty excitingfor you as well. Yeah, it
was a fantastic opportunity. The folksthat Caesar Cleyburg are awesome and yes,
So my PhD was looking at offlotspacial ecology and that was to understand where
they might be crossing various roads becausethe afflot is an endangered species in Texas
(14:43):
and their biggest threat is road mortality. So we were trying to answer questions
to actually provide real, meaningful onthe ground solutions for Texas Department of Transportation
and Texas Perks and Wildlife or howto better conserve that endangered species. You
(15:03):
know, while we're on that topic, we're gonna we're gonna get into the
bear project here in a little bit. But while we're on the topic,
what's the status of the oslot?Now? I mean, I know that
you I don't know if you're intimatelyinvolved with those research progics still, but
I'm just curious because they're such acool animal. They're so cool. So
they they're limited to about estimated betweeneighty and one hundred individuals left in the
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entire United States, and they're allconcentrated in South Texas, in just two
counties just north of the border,all the way out by Brownsville. So
yeah, they're they're limited to justa few private ranches and then Laguna Atascosa
National Wildlife Refuge, And those twogroups are only separated by about thirty miles,
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but it is completely impassable with development, roads, agriculture, urban areas,
and so there's no connection between thosetwo groups. And then there's no
connection down to the oslots in Mexicoeither. So they're they're doing well with
the help of really dedicated landowners likethe folks at the East Foundation, but
(16:21):
in general, the oslots not doingsuper great. Yeah, and they're so
I mean, the researchers have donesuch a great job of game cameras and
tracking and that sort of thing,but they're so elusive. You know.
Your hope is that there's more outthere that we don't know about. But
I know they're I know, they'reyou know, in a in a kind
of a dire situation right now,but at least we're at least we're focused
on addressing it. Yeah. Yeah, And our hope is that there are
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a lot more out there that wejust don't know about due to their elusive
nature and land access. But theones we do know about, the folks
are truly dedicated to committing their landsto both wild life conservation as well as
multi use, and it's great tosee how they can balance protection for a
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very unique carnivore with you know,their day to day operations of hunting and
cattle. Yeah, and you know, there's there's a lot of activity around
the US dealing with migration corridors,funding and migration corridors and that sort of
thing. Is that something that candirectly positively impact outlets? Are they so
far out in the in the brushthat that migration corridors because an asset,
(17:29):
because you talked about road mortality isis that something that could benefit them as
well. Unfortunately, where the asslotsare in South Texas and then the closest
population in northern Mexico, there isa lot of urban development between those two
groups to the point where order crossingwould really not be feasible for asslots.
(17:55):
For other species maybe, but forosslots in particular, it's just so far
for them to go that there's probablyno real hope of connectivity between our thoughts
in the US and Mexico, atleast in the Texas side of things.
Right, And we've got about thirtyseconds left here before you jump into the
break as do you think in youropinion? Well, I think I'm gonna
(18:17):
take this on the other side becauseit's it's not political, but I just
want to get your opinion based onyour experience on it. Folks joining us
day as doctor Amandaville's Dutt. Itwas a carnivore specialist and affiliated with the
Borderland's Research Institute. We will beback after the break on Hunting Matters KPRC
nine fifty. Then I don't havea hunt What should I guess? As
bunge for logical ward Wind's say,lady, welcome back to honetymatters on KPRC
(19:37):
nine and fifty. This is JoePator. I am Ramone Roeblists and we
are joining the day of our guest, doctor Amandaville's Dutt, a carnivore specialist
and post doctoral research scientist at theBorderland's Research Institute. Doctor you wouldn't ironically
be a vegetarian, would you?No? No, I'm not okay that
would that would? I think thatwould be against our hypocratic eth I'm a
(20:00):
research of something that was bothered methis whole interview. Always thought you're being
from Arizona. I thought you weregoing to ask about the food out there.
Well, I was going to askChristmas tree sauce or something. Well,
that was gonna come later. Butwhat I was going to ask you
was if a vip is come intoyour house and you had to cook something
asses to all of our guests,what is that meal you're making. Oh,
(20:22):
that's a good question. I'd haveto say it would definitely be probably
sajitas. That's a big part ofour diet here, especially with the Sonoran
side of Mexico influence and and Tousanya. And what time should we be there?
(20:44):
And one last question before I turnedit over to the adult in the
room, how do you spell Tucsonpeu c s O n Okay, not
Tuchson. It's never to bring itup. It's confusing. Yeah, okay,
very good. Always misspelled it,oh man. And I was going
to ask this before the break,But I'm asking this from a purely non
(21:07):
political view, but I have toyou know, when you talk about these
topics, people automatically go to politics. So you're talking about the oslot earlier,
and you know, with all theborder activity and the urban development as
well as the border wall that wasput up partially in you know, many
areas in Texas. Has that haveyou? Has has that been a you
(21:30):
know, an obvious detriment on theOsla population or is it a thread or
what's your opinion on that? Sowe really haven't seen much of an impact
on the Texas side for aslots.Just again, they're they're so far from
the border on our side, andthen the closest Mexican population is also very
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far from the borders. And keepin mind too that those areas on both
sides of the border are high theurban and so there it's not prime off
habitat were splicing in half, gotit? So for the off slots,
but the border stuff is not ahuge impact at least in Texas. There's
there are offlots coming up into Arizonaand that's a whole nother story. But
(22:17):
yeah, okay, okay, that'sgood enough. All right, let's talk
about black Bears and the Black Bearproject in Texas. Kind of it kind
of give if you can kind ofan overview of what is the project,
what are the you know, whatare the expected goals and how long is
it going to go on or howlong is it has it been going on?
So this black Beer project came aboutbecause there had been increased sightings in
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western Texas as well as some ofthe hill country areas and around kind of
Del Rio and Eagle Pass area wheremore and more people were spotting black bears.
And so blackbirds had come back intoTexas from the remote mountains of northern
Mexico in the nineteen eighties and theyreally got established with reading population in Big
(23:07):
Bend National Park in the nineties wherethey were really starting to do well.
And so now that they've established themselves, they're starting to come out of the
park and starting to cross the RioGrand in other areas besides the park.
And so the immacus of this projectis that you know, we're seeing we're
on the front wave of this recolonizationnaturally from black bears, So no biologists
(23:33):
that have stepped in and reintroduced boctors. They've come back on their own,
and we now have a responsibility tounderstand where they're going so that we can
protect those areas, protect the bearers, but also protect the people that are
now going to have to learn againhow to live with players. They're not
an easy species to coexist with either. So the whole point of the project
(23:55):
is to really get our finger onthe pulse of what's going on in it's
recolonizing population so that we can helpimprove that coexistence before conflict gets out of
hand. And so our major goalsare to understand movement, dispersal and those
potential corridors that the animals are using, diet and survival and reproduction and yeah,
(24:22):
so all of that is through thelens of where are they going,
why are they there, and howcan we make sure that they get into
as little trouble as possible. Yeah, they're very curious animals and it's they're
very cool to observe. Ramona.And now we're talking about this before we
went on the air. What werethe factors that caused the black bear to
pretty much disappear in the state ofTexas. Like many large carnivores in the
(24:47):
United States, they were essentially huntedto extinction and so there was most carnivores
that was for persecution reasons, conflictover deputies, the of their livestock,
but bears in particular, it wasthat, but it was also that people
actually really liked to eat their meatfor the longest time, and so they
(25:11):
were really popular game animal in termsof that, and so basically they got
over hunted and they were eliminated fromTexas, and then they kind of established
themselves safely in some of the muchmore remote mountains of northern Mexico where they
then were protected on both sides theborder in about the middle of the nineteen
(25:37):
hundreds from hunting and poaching, andthen that allowed them to really regrow,
re establish themselves, and then naturallyexpand back into Texas. It's funny you
bring that up about the diet atthe diet of human beings, you know,
a while back, because I actuallyhad a guy I was up in
Alaska a couple weeks ago, anda guy we were talking about it.
He was a North American researcher,and he said, you know, way
(25:59):
back when people preferred bear meat overdeer meat, they'd rather they would rather
beat bear meat the deer meat,which is hard for us to kind of
fathom. I mean, I've tastedbear meat. It's relatively oily. I
wasn't a big fan of it.But I mean, that's what you're you're
talking about here, is you knowthat the dietary dietary requirements of you know,
human beings in America has shifted andnow you hear more people talking about
you know, venison sausage and thatsort of thing as a protein source.
(26:22):
But I you know, Houston SparklofFoundation has helped partially support some aspects of
this of this project as well,which we're very glad to be part of
and very honored to be part of. And you guys are going to be
putting together some of your research dataand information for the magazine down the road.
But one of the things that Isaw recently that was very, very
(26:44):
cool and very informative was the videothat was put together or program that was
put together on the project with thesport of HB Grocery Company. Can you
tell a little bit about that atthe background of that project and where people
can see it, because I thinkespecially for people well you know that potentially
can deal with you know, havingto co exist with these bears because they
(27:06):
need to come back, we needthem back, but people having to co
exist with these bears, and peopleto really get a insight into what this
project is about. I think that'sa great, great educational resource for the
general public. Can you talk aboutthat a little bit. Yeah, So
that was an effort through some folkswith hib and as well as finning for
(27:26):
films. So they're the same groupthat made the Deep in the Heart film
that came out not terribly long ago. And so the impetus was to understand
and really highlight some of these keywildlife stories in Texas, and one of
those was the black bear coming backinto the Transpacos or West Texas region.
(27:48):
And so we had some filmmakers comeout and they followed some of our graduate
students, particularly one of our PhDstudents, Matthew Hewitt. And so the
point of that film was to geta glimpse into the situation that bears are
encountering in Texas and the beginnings ofour research project. And people can find
(28:14):
that actually on YouTube if they justgoogle HGB black Bear Texas film, it
should come up through YouTube and it'scompletely free. And yeah, I think
that's a nice introduction to the storyof black bears and our particular project.
Yeah. I thought one of thethings was that on the video they trapped
(28:36):
mini bears. I had think theyhad one recapture and you know they're not
just trapping and look at them,they're trapping a drawing blood samples, putting
collars on and doing you know,doing all the things you guys need to
do for research. But there wasone of the bear. I think it
was three hundred fifty or four hundredfifty pounds. Yeah, so he was
a particularly interesting bear. So hewas a big, old chunky guy because
(28:56):
he was actually a problem bear.He was coming in and he was eating
out of a local barbecue restaurant's dumpsters. Yeah. I mean we all like
barbecue, I get it. Yeah, but no one likes picking up the
trash that comes out of that afterwards, right, So he Yeah, he
was a particularly heavy bear. Mostof our animals are are males average more
(29:22):
around two hundred and twenty pounds,and our females average more around one hundred
and ten pounds. That's very cool. Yeah, it's a great video,
folks. Check it out. I'mgonna take a break here. On Honey
Matters KPRC nine fifty Dog Gold,Chad Goals, Now Go Tweet, ten
(29:52):
Mile Schools, Squeaen Cow Goals,Moove Frog Goals, Crowd Day, I
Love Fine, go Tude, DuciQuod Dud and the CSNG The Welcome Back
(30:18):
to Hunting Matters on KPRC nine fifty. This is Joe Bitar. I just
want to remind everybody we are anaward winning program, multi award winning,
award winning I love people that you'replaying children's songs. I've never heard the
pop version of that science well youknow it's it is what it is and
the kids song or the theme songfrom Friends. This is Elvis spelled with
(30:40):
why A Y L V I sthere's only one Elvis. Sorry, well
there's two. I'll take Evis Costelloas well. Okay, fair enough,
he's a close second. All right, folks, Welcome back to Huntymatters on
KPRC nine fifty. Our guest todayis doctor Mandaville's Dutt. She is a
carnivore specialist and a postdoctoral research scientistwith the Borderland's Research Institute. Doctor,
thank you once again for joining us. Thanks again for having me. We
(31:06):
could talk like an hour and ahalf or two hours just about black bears,
but I'm curious. Let's give let'sget our listeners a little bit of
advice here. What what is yourbest advice for I'm going to say,
what is the civilian population that's notfamiliar wildlife? If they come, if
they come in contact or if theyencounter a bear, whether it's in the
(31:26):
whether they're dumpster diving at their localbarbecue place, or they're out in you
know, big band. What shouldpeople do? Great question? Now that
black bears are more on the risein Texas, the best thing to do
is to stay calm and to getloud. So made lots of noise to
let the bear know that you arethere in case they weren't aware that you
(31:49):
were there. Bears have really greatsense of smell and hearing, but you
know, sometimes when they get focusedon food, they're not going to all
be totally aware of their surroundings.So make lots of noise and back away
slowly, still making lots of noise. Stay big, so don't ever crouch
(32:12):
down to the ground pick something up, even if you think maybe grabbing a
rock or a stick would help.By crouching down, you're going to make
yourself look smaller, more vulnerable.The best thing to do is just to
stay as big as possible and backaway slowly, And when you do get
to a safe location, you callyour local game wardens so Texas Parks and
(32:36):
Wildlife. If you are in theparks, you should call the National parks
service folks, but for the mostpart, calling Texas Parts and Wildlife,
letting them know that you've seen abear, potentially have an interaction with a
bear, and they'll be able toassess kind of the danger level of that
bear depending on how many sightings they'vehad of it, what kind of interactions
(33:00):
were had, and they'll make thebest decision on whether that requires management action
or not. Good advice, goodadvice. I'm curious, what is the
coolest thing you've seen through this project? What? What? What? What
has happened that either on video orthrough the through the research process that you
went wow that I had no clueof that. Has there been any any
(33:22):
big aha moments for you? Forme, it's just been the adaptability of
bears in this really arid, hotenvironment. I think a lot of people
tend to associate bears with winter andbig trees and hibernation, but you know,
they're here in the hot, arid, dry desert of West Texas and
(33:46):
we've seen some amazing adaptations with themdenning in rock piles high up in the
Chisos Mountains of the Big Bend,and you know, moving really far to
find resources. So one of ourmales moved one hundred and fifty miles from
(34:09):
where we taught him, and thatwasn't in you know, a single day
or anything, but that's that's quitea far distance to go in just a
few short weeks. So they're movinga lot, and they're displaying a lot
of unique behavior that I think willbe really beneficial for us to know comparing
(34:31):
them to kind of more standard bearpopulations in more northern latitudes. Yeah,
I've seen some of the footage thingsoff off the project and you know,
like you said, you've got youknow, you've got your outlier dumpster divers
that are really big bears, buta lot of the bears it almost appears
like you know, like you said, the adaptation process where they've you know,
their their hair is thinner, they'rea little bit smaller to you know,
(34:54):
you when you look at some speciesand I'm not a scientist by any
means, but when you look atsome a species versus other species, their
body style is acclimator, where likeyou know, like a desert rat will
have a bigger ears for ventilation.Same thing with rabbits that have do you
have bears in Texas physically adapted?We have not really noticed any physical differences
(35:19):
that are that obvious with our desertbears versus others. And but we haven't
not found any that so bears canbe more than just black across their range.
But we found that all of ourbears have been strictly that very dark
traditional black color. We had onewith a blaze on his chest, but
(35:43):
other than that, there's been nolike cinnamon or brown blackberries in our population,
which I find very interesting for ahot aired environment. Yeah, that
is I mean that I never eventhought about that. That is, that
is something. And what a Texasbears eat. I mean, I know
they're foragers, but some of thoseplaces you're finding bears, it's pretty bear
(36:05):
and in the pond. Yeah,so it's all very seasonal. But they
eat a lot of perkly pear fruits, they eat acorns if they're up in
high enough elevations. But they'll alsoyou know, they'll eat insects, so
they'll go find an ant nest andslip all those little guys up. They'll
(36:30):
also they'll rip out so tall plantsand they'll eat the roots of those or
like the more juicy meaty parts ofthose plants. We're finding so far that
our bears are pretty or vigorous.We've documented a couple instances of scavenging and
(36:51):
potential true carnivory, but that's beenof a very small young pavelina so far,
mostly plants and bugs right now,Funny you say that on Thursday there
was a video Wednesday there was avideo of a black bear at a picnic
table in Monterey, Mexico, andthe family sitting there and joining a party
(37:14):
or whatever, and hops up onthe table and the mom grabs the kid
obviously just shields the kid from lookingat this black bear who just casually eats
their tacos on the picnic table.So everything the doctor said, you can
add tacos to that too, andobviously barbecue and bar because there's video proof,
video evidence of black bear just standingthere eating casually while the parents are
(37:37):
petrified that this black bears on theirtable. That's very cool. Doctor.
We're about out of time here realquickly. Can you tell Is there a
place where people can go and keepup with the project. Yeah, they
can come check out all of ourwork at the Borderland's Research Institute website,
(37:58):
and we have lots of states onpublic events and our research and any of
those resource materials that we have availablefor how to live safely with theirs or
yeah, just those kind of ourstandard research publications as well. Perfect well,
(38:20):
I want to say thank you forbeing on the show and thank you
as well for for what you're doing. I mean, you know, hunters,
I'm not blowing our own horn here, but hunters are you know a
lot of hunters out there are thebig some of the biggest conservations in the
world. I think I think it'svery cool to see these these populations start
to come back in Texas, andit's not only does it take time and
(38:44):
money, but it also takes intelligentpeople like you that are going out there
and have a passion for this andmaking sure whether it's asto or bear or
mountainin or whatever it is, thatthese species are are hopefully going to be
around for our kids and our grandkidsto see and enjoy. So thank you
for that at Thank you so much, and thank you for your support of
(39:05):
our project. And we really couldn'tdo this type of work without dedicated folks
like yourselves who genuinely care about ourresources. So thank you. Yeah,
there's there's remonst carnivore right there,parking in the background. What kind of
a studio is this. We're nothingbut professional dock. So well, thank
you once again, folks. That'sall the time we have here on Hunting
(39:29):
Matters KPRC nine fifty. We willhopefully see you next week. Have a
great weekend end the stock markets downand you'll fully get you
The Houston Safari Club Foundation is afive zero one C three nonprofit organization that
supports the future of hunting and conservation. Wildlife and habitat conservation, youth education
and outdoor experiences, scholarships, andanti poaching efforts are just a few of
the programs supported by this organization.Monthly events, an annual convention, award
winning publications, networking opportunities, andvaluable resources for hunting knowledge or just a
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you're searching for a group of peoplededicated to protecting the future of hunting,
look no further. Join Houston SafariClub Foundation today at we Hunt weegive dot
org or call seven one three sixtwo three eight eight four four. Tradition,
conservation, family, the outdoors.It matters to you, It matters
(00:47):
to us. This is Hunting Matters, presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe b. Tar. Goodmorning and welcome to Hunting Matters on kPr
C nine fifty. This is JoeBat. I'm Ramon Roebliss. How's that
level of yours? It's good?Is it all right? I had to
crank it up there. This islive radio. This is why it turned
down. You can turn it down. Just a hair turned out, hair
(01:10):
perfect scoche. Actually, yeah,radio terminal. I'm getting old deaf on
one side, hard of hearing onthe deck, and then I get it.
We just got back from a weekendlong casting blast down in South Texas.
My buddy shout out to Leo Martinez, the ranch manager at da ranch
host Us. We did uh,we did dove hunts Friday afternoon and Saturday
afternoon and Sunday morning, and thenhe took us down with the coast down
(01:30):
into the Lagoon of Madre and wefished for trout and red's. Oh nice.
We had a really good weekend,great, great group of guys and
a lot of fun. A lotof fun now casting blasts. You know,
I'm a novice at these kinds ofthings. So casting blasts I would
assume is you cast the rod andthen whatever you get on the hook you
shoot with the gun. Yeah.You jerked the fish out of the water
(01:52):
and we blast him. Yeah.Yeah, oh nice. You've never been
ever. No sounds fun. Yeah, I think you could get into it.
Yeah, none, that's not it. For those listening that don't know
what a caston blast is. No, we just we dove hunted and saltwater
fished, and it was it was, it was. It was cool,
it was hot, it was verywindy, but we still had a great
(02:12):
time. Okay. Anytime you getoutdoors and hang out with a bunch of
people, it got to meet afew new people, so that's always fun
as well. And uh, likeI said, Leo Martinez and his daughter
Madison, and the Angela, thechef down there, and the entire crew,
they're just always accommodating folks. I'mgonna give a shameless plug here if
you're looking for a place to go, hunt, hang out, whatever,
d e a ranch check them outdown in South Texas. And I know
(02:34):
you're asking, d I know,I see your brain working, Da.
No, it's not drug enforcement ages, dancing elk Alexander Ranch, Okay.
And the reason it's named that becauseI thought the same thing when I first
went. Doctor Alexander, who ownsit, is a neurosurgeon from Corpus and
he loves elk okay, and he'sgot elk all over the property, which
is really cool. They got it, but oh man, they had the
(02:54):
cutest little thing I'm so excited.Yeah, like a judge, the circus
boy with the shiny new pet.He they had a baby draft that was
just born last week which was runningaround. It's so cool. And they've
got a lot of their spring,you know, offspring that coming out of
the all the exotics and the whitetails and stuff they got run around there.
So it's like a big nursery rightnow. It's it's very cool.
(03:15):
Now, let me ask you thisquestion. I'm pulling up the website right
now. Is this a place whereI could just bring the family. We
can just go and amander? Dowe have to go hunting? No,
you don't have to hunt. Legois very accommodating. Okay, you can
check. You can. There's neverbeen anything I've asked of him that he
got. No, we can makeit that work. Okay. I've known
him for years. He was actuallyaffiliated with another ranch years and years ago.
(03:36):
That's where we met. And No. The cool thing about that places.
Again, I sound like a commercial, but they have hunting of all
sorts, bird hunting, big gamehunting, exotic hunting, native white tail.
But they also have a giant weddingvenue out there as well, so
you can throw a party. They'veHe's told me stories about people who going
out there and been deaf hunting thatmorning and then come inside, get dressing
and get married two hours later andthey're all out there take it or taking
(04:00):
wedding photos and their camouflage. Thisis pretty cool. Yeah, but yeah,
it's it's a cool place. No, you could take the boys out
there. They've got giraffs, they'vegot zebras. They can't hunt the drafts.
Uh no, Okay, they've gota giraff that's a two year old
that they're they're trying to get raisedand calm down there. Two year old
draft is like a fourteen year oldboy. That's funny, best way to
describe it. So yeah, darans check them out. Pretty pretty cool
(04:25):
set up down there, and they'reonly like an hour and a half from
San Antonio. So if you wantto do that for a couple of days
and then take your always down toPorto Ransus or Corpus, you're an hour
about an hour hour and a halfaway from there. So yep. Anyway,
I digress Houston's Fart Club Foundation.What is happening with them a lot
of cool stuff going on, Likewe talked about every week. October fifth
is the annual Sporting Club Oh that'sI'll be late for that. Never mind.
(04:47):
Oh no, no, no,no, that's next week. Sorry,
Okay. October five is the annualSporting Place tournament. You can still
sign up for. It's gonna beat a Greater Houston Sports Club. Doesn't
matter if you're a novice or ora professional. It's just a fun day.
And in the afternoon. We're gonnastart at two, ended up with
dinner at seven, so we're havingan afternoon afternoon start this year. Tomorrow
is October. Yes, I know, I know. I just realized that
(05:11):
when you said that at that No, that's not until October. That's why
I was My days were gentle.I'm like, I didn't September just start
man year old. I know,as evidence by the Gray Beard. And
then November eight, we are goingto have a course at the Houston spar
Our Club Foundation offices, which isfirst aid for gunshot gunshot wound victims,
which, unfortunately and sadly, wehave to consider those things if we're out
(05:31):
of public place and somebody happens toget shot. But that's gonna be no
Vemberrade so you can go to wehunt we give dot org. You can
sign up for a membership, youcan sign up for one of the events.
Even if you're not a member.Come on out and see what we're
about. And we'd love to seeyou our guest today. This is this
is a thrill for me, andthe reason is I love bears and I
love carnivores, and I've grown tolove them more and more as I've gotten
(05:54):
older. I don't know why.But doctor Amanda Veale's dutt who's a PhD.
And we're gonna talk about all ourspecialties and what she's done in her
career. But she's joining us todayand she's affiliated with the Borderland's Research Institute
out in West Texas. So doctor, thank you so much for joining us
(06:15):
today. Thank you for having me. It's great to join you, and
I'm so happy to hear you.Your love of carnivors is only growing over
of the years. Yeah, itreally has, it really has. So
let's talk about We've got you know, we got five minutes left in this
segment, so I kind of wantto dig into a little bit about about
your background before we talk about blackbears and Texas and some of the cool,
(06:38):
cool stuff that's going on here.So you're a carnivore specialist, which
sounds really cool. It sounds likea superhero. So can you tell our
audience what a carnivore specialist is?Yeah, it's honestly my dream job.
I won't lie. Growing up alwayskind of watching the nature shows, and
(06:59):
as I got older, getting outsidemore through the traditional means, it was
always carnivores that I fell in lovewith. And basically what I do is
I manage all of our research projectsat Borderlands Research Institutes that are focused in
any way on carnivores. And socurrently that is a very large black bear
project that will get into and alittle bit, but it is also touched
(07:24):
on mountain lions and smaller carnivores likebobcats, gray foxes, kit foxes,
that kind of nature right, right, And I'm kind of like prefacing the
rest of our conversation with kind ofa little dictionary here for myself, Remone
and for our audience, because there'ssome things here that you've been involved with
and that you're currently working with.We really don't know what they are.
So just to talk a little bitin the last minute before we go to
(07:47):
the break. What is spatial ecologybecause I know that you work a lot
with that. Yeah, So spatiallyecology is really how animals interact with the
landscape around them, and so it'sa very broad definition, but it's basically
where are they going, why arethey there? And the methods that we
use to answer those questions and that. So that involves when you talk about
(08:11):
special ecology, that involves their theirspace and interaction with each other's as well
as their environment. Correct, ittends to be more focused on just the
environment, but there is very muchan intertwined nature with how they interact with
other species as well as other membersof the same species. Got it very
cool? All right? Going totake a week quick break here on Hunting
(08:31):
Matters KPRC nine fifty. You hadto do it, didn't you. Yeah,
(09:16):
of course, hung like a well, yeah, in honor of our
guest today on your I can't waitto see what Net? What's what's coming
up next? Your on your Carnivoreplaylist? Welcome back to Hunting Matters KPRC
nine fifty. This is Joe BatoI am Ramone Rubless and joining us stay
as our guest doctor Amandaville's Dutt,who is a PhD carnivore specialist and research
(09:39):
scientists with the Borderland's Research Interests Instituteout at Saul Rush University. Doctor,
thank you so much once again forjoining us. Thank you again for having
me. I've loved the music choice. By the way, you just he
always catches me off guard. Younever know what he's got going. He's
already probably got four songs already alreadyin the queue for for carniv related conversations.
(10:03):
So you know, the Houston SquarClub Foundation has done a lot of
work over the past many years asfar as supporting the projects with the staff
and the students out at Saul RossUniversity. But can you tell tell the
audience a little bit about what isthe Borderlands Research Institute, because I don't
think a lot of people know knowwhat BRII really is and how impactful they
(10:24):
are on conservation of wildlife and habitatin state of Texas and beyond. Yeah,
So we are a research institute housedwithin Flock State University, and we're
all the way out there in Alpinein far West Texas, so we're not
far from Big Ben National Park andour focus is to work on the borderlands
(10:50):
of western Texas in the Chihuahuan Desert, and we do that through research,
education, outreach, and then yeah, so education is the component with the
graduate students and our undergraduates in ourprogram, and then of course outreaches through
our work with the general public,hunters, landowners. And then research is
(11:13):
kind of more my specialty where we'reactually on the ground trying to understand animal
behavior. Yeah, it's it's amazing. Uh, you know the things that
that you guys study out there inWest Sex, which is, by the
way, is one of my favoriteparts of Texas. I love that part
of the country. It's it's likea whole new world out there. And
you were talking earlier, you knowabout elevations. You want to get some
(11:35):
elevations, go out and that's outof the stuff. It's pretty cool.
I don't spend enough time out there. I'll take you. Let's go,
man, you to the boys wouldlove big band. I'm curious how did
you embark on your career in thisfield of study. Was this something you
had always wanted to do, Wasit something that you fell into or something
that you decided on later in life, or how did how did you this
(11:56):
coming, Because this this career choiceand field of study is really unique,
it really is, and I feelreally lucky to be in this field.
But I honestly didn't know about itwhen I was younger. I went to
college to be a biochemist, andthen I took my first biology ecology course,
and you know, I was learningabout plant and animal interactions and I
(12:20):
was like, Wow, this isway more interesting than chemistry lab. Let's
go talk to some folks in thatdepartment. And that's when I discovered the
world of wildlife conservation and management.And then after finished being my bachelor's degree
at the University of Arizona, Istayed on for my master's degree there and
(12:45):
that's really when I would say mywildlife focused career took off. And from
there it's just been various opportunities towork on different projects in different areas,
all focused on furnivores, and it'sbeen truly special to say at least,
(13:07):
did you always have a love ofthe outdoors? I mean, you know,
you talked about you changed kind ofcareer paths, but did you always
have a love for the outdoors?I really did. I'm not a traditional
hunter in the sense that I didn'tgrow up hunting, but I grew up
hiking and camping. And then itwasn't until I found my way into a
world of wildlife conservation that I evenknew folks who hunted and they were able
(13:33):
to take me out and they reallysparked that love of another way to connect
with the land and with animals.And yeah, now I'm an avid hunter,
and I think it gives me adeeper appreciation for everything that folks in
my field are trying to do.So yeah, I always had a love
(13:54):
of the outdoors, but I thinkit's only grown as I've gotten exposed to
more ways to enjoy the outdoors.Right, right, So you were talking
about your studies earlier. Now youcompleted your PhD and Wall of Sciences from
Texas A and M University Kingsville,and then you did work with the Caesar
Clearburg Wildlife Research Institute as well.That's you know, that's two prestigious institutions
(14:16):
down and anybody from Texas knows theCaesar Cleeburg name, So I'm sure that
was that was a pretty pretty excitingfor you as well. Yeah, it
was a fantastic opportunity. The folksthat Caesar Cleyburg are awesome and yes,
So my PhD was looking at offlotspacial ecology and that was to understand where
they might be crossing various roads becausethe afflot is an endangered species in Texas
(14:43):
and their biggest threat is road mortality. So we were trying to answer questions
to actually provide real, meaningful onthe ground solutions for Texas Department of Transportation
and Texas Perks and Wildlife or howto better conserve that endangered species. You
(15:03):
know, while we're on that topic, we're gonna we're gonna get into the
bear project here in a little bit. But while we're on the topic,
what's the status of the oslot?Now? I mean, I know that
you I don't know if you're intimatelyinvolved with those research progics still, but
I'm just curious because they're such acool animal. They're so cool. So
they they're limited to about estimated betweeneighty and one hundred individuals left in the
(15:30):
entire United States, and they're allconcentrated in South Texas, in just two
counties just north of the border,all the way out by Brownsville. So
yeah, they're they're limited to justa few private ranches and then Laguna Atascosa
National Wildlife Refuge, And those twogroups are only separated by about thirty miles,
(15:56):
but it is completely impassable with development, roads, agriculture, urban areas,
and so there's no connection between thosetwo groups. And then there's no
connection down to the oslots in Mexicoeither. So they're they're doing well with
the help of really dedicated landowners likethe folks at the East Foundation, but
(16:21):
in general, the oslots not doingsuper great. Yeah, and they're so
I mean, the researchers have donesuch a great job of game cameras and
tracking and that sort of thing,but they're so elusive. You know.
Your hope is that there's more outthere that we don't know about. But
I know they're I know, they'reyou know, in a in a kind
of a dire situation right now,but at least we're at least we're focused
on addressing it. Yeah. Yeah, And our hope is that there are
(16:45):
a lot more out there that wejust don't know about due to their elusive
nature and land access. But theones we do know about, the folks
are truly dedicated to committing their landsto both wild life conservation as well as
multi use, and it's great tosee how they can balance protection for a
(17:07):
very unique carnivore with you know,their day to day operations of hunting and
cattle. Yeah, and you know, there's there's a lot of activity around
the US dealing with migration corridors,funding and migration corridors and that sort of
thing. Is that something that candirectly positively impact outlets? Are they so
far out in the in the brushthat that migration corridors because an asset,
(17:29):
because you talked about road mortality isis that something that could benefit them as
well. Unfortunately, where the asslotsare in South Texas and then the closest
population in northern Mexico, there isa lot of urban development between those two
groups to the point where order crossingwould really not be feasible for asslots.
(17:55):
For other species maybe, but forosslots in particular, it's just so far
for them to go that there's probablyno real hope of connectivity between our thoughts
in the US and Mexico, atleast in the Texas side of things.
Right, And we've got about thirtyseconds left here before you jump into the
break as do you think in youropinion? Well, I think I'm gonna
(18:17):
take this on the other side becauseit's it's not political, but I just
want to get your opinion based onyour experience on it. Folks joining us
day as doctor Amandaville's Dutt. Itwas a carnivore specialist and affiliated with the
Borderland's Research Institute. We will beback after the break on Hunting Matters KPRC
nine fifty. Then I don't havea hunt What should I guess? As
bunge for logical ward Wind's say,lady, welcome back to honetymatters on KPRC
(19:37):
nine and fifty. This is JoePator. I am Ramone Roeblists and we
are joining the day of our guest, doctor Amandaville's Dutt, a carnivore specialist
and post doctoral research scientist at theBorderland's Research Institute. Doctor you wouldn't ironically
be a vegetarian, would you?No? No, I'm not okay that
would that would? I think thatwould be against our hypocratic eth I'm a
(20:00):
research of something that was bothered methis whole interview. Always thought you're being
from Arizona. I thought you weregoing to ask about the food out there.
Well, I was going to askChristmas tree sauce or something. Well,
that was gonna come later. Butwhat I was going to ask you
was if a vip is come intoyour house and you had to cook something
asses to all of our guests,what is that meal you're making. Oh,
(20:22):
that's a good question. I'd haveto say it would definitely be probably
sajitas. That's a big part ofour diet here, especially with the Sonoran
side of Mexico influence and and Tousanya. And what time should we be there?
(20:44):
And one last question before I turnedit over to the adult in the
room, how do you spell Tucsonpeu c s O n Okay, not
Tuchson. It's never to bring itup. It's confusing. Yeah, okay,
very good. Always misspelled it,oh man. And I was going
to ask this before the break,But I'm asking this from a purely non
(21:07):
political view, but I have toyou know, when you talk about these
topics, people automatically go to politics. So you're talking about the oslot earlier,
and you know, with all theborder activity and the urban development as
well as the border wall that wasput up partially in you know, many
areas in Texas. Has that haveyou? Has has that been a you
(21:30):
know, an obvious detriment on theOsla population or is it a thread or
what's your opinion on that? Sowe really haven't seen much of an impact
on the Texas side for aslots.Just again, they're they're so far from
the border on our side, andthen the closest Mexican population is also very
(21:52):
far from the borders. And keepin mind too that those areas on both
sides of the border are high theurban and so there it's not prime off
habitat were splicing in half, gotit? So for the off slots,
but the border stuff is not ahuge impact at least in Texas. There's
there are offlots coming up into Arizonaand that's a whole nother story. But
(22:17):
yeah, okay, okay, that'sgood enough. All right, let's talk
about black Bears and the Black Bearproject in Texas. Kind of it kind
of give if you can kind ofan overview of what is the project,
what are the you know, whatare the expected goals and how long is
it going to go on or howlong is it has it been going on?
So this black Beer project came aboutbecause there had been increased sightings in
(22:41):
western Texas as well as some ofthe hill country areas and around kind of
Del Rio and Eagle Pass area wheremore and more people were spotting black bears.
And so blackbirds had come back intoTexas from the remote mountains of northern
Mexico in the nineteen eighties and theyreally got established with reading population in Big
(23:07):
Bend National Park in the nineties wherethey were really starting to do well.
And so now that they've established themselves, they're starting to come out of the
park and starting to cross the RioGrand in other areas besides the park.
And so the immacus of this projectis that you know, we're seeing we're
on the front wave of this recolonizationnaturally from black bears, So no biologists
(23:33):
that have stepped in and reintroduced boctors. They've come back on their own,
and we now have a responsibility tounderstand where they're going so that we can
protect those areas, protect the bearers, but also protect the people that are
now going to have to learn againhow to live with players. They're not
an easy species to coexist with either. So the whole point of the project
(23:55):
is to really get our finger onthe pulse of what's going on in it's
recolonizing population so that we can helpimprove that coexistence before conflict gets out of
hand. And so our major goalsare to understand movement, dispersal and those
potential corridors that the animals are using, diet and survival and reproduction and yeah,
(24:22):
so all of that is through thelens of where are they going,
why are they there, and howcan we make sure that they get into
as little trouble as possible. Yeah, they're very curious animals and it's they're
very cool to observe. Ramona.And now we're talking about this before we
went on the air. What werethe factors that caused the black bear to
pretty much disappear in the state ofTexas. Like many large carnivores in the
(24:47):
United States, they were essentially huntedto extinction and so there was most carnivores
that was for persecution reasons, conflictover deputies, the of their livestock,
but bears in particular, it wasthat, but it was also that people
actually really liked to eat their meatfor the longest time, and so they
(25:11):
were really popular game animal in termsof that, and so basically they got
over hunted and they were eliminated fromTexas, and then they kind of established
themselves safely in some of the muchmore remote mountains of northern Mexico where they
then were protected on both sides theborder in about the middle of the nineteen
(25:37):
hundreds from hunting and poaching, andthen that allowed them to really regrow,
re establish themselves, and then naturallyexpand back into Texas. It's funny you
bring that up about the diet atthe diet of human beings, you know,
a while back, because I actuallyhad a guy I was up in
Alaska a couple weeks ago, anda guy we were talking about it.
He was a North American researcher,and he said, you know, way
(25:59):
back when people preferred bear meat overdeer meat, they'd rather they would rather
beat bear meat the deer meat,which is hard for us to kind of
fathom. I mean, I've tastedbear meat. It's relatively oily. I
wasn't a big fan of it.But I mean, that's what you're you're
talking about here, is you knowthat the dietary dietary requirements of you know,
human beings in America has shifted andnow you hear more people talking about
you know, venison sausage and thatsort of thing as a protein source.
(26:22):
But I you know, Houston SparklofFoundation has helped partially support some aspects of
this of this project as well,which we're very glad to be part of
and very honored to be part of. And you guys are going to be
putting together some of your research dataand information for the magazine down the road.
But one of the things that Isaw recently that was very, very
(26:44):
cool and very informative was the videothat was put together or program that was
put together on the project with thesport of HB Grocery Company. Can you
tell a little bit about that atthe background of that project and where people
can see it, because I thinkespecially for people well you know that potentially
can deal with you know, havingto co exist with these bears because they
(27:06):
need to come back, we needthem back, but people having to co
exist with these bears, and peopleto really get a insight into what this
project is about. I think that'sa great, great educational resource for the
general public. Can you talk aboutthat a little bit. Yeah, So
that was an effort through some folkswith hib and as well as finning for
(27:26):
films. So they're the same groupthat made the Deep in the Heart film
that came out not terribly long ago. And so the impetus was to understand
and really highlight some of these keywildlife stories in Texas, and one of
those was the black bear coming backinto the Transpacos or West Texas region.
(27:48):
And so we had some filmmakers comeout and they followed some of our graduate
students, particularly one of our PhDstudents, Matthew Hewitt. And so the
point of that film was to geta glimpse into the situation that bears are
encountering in Texas and the beginnings ofour research project. And people can find
(28:14):
that actually on YouTube if they justgoogle HGB black Bear Texas film, it
should come up through YouTube and it'scompletely free. And yeah, I think
that's a nice introduction to the storyof black bears and our particular project.
Yeah. I thought one of thethings was that on the video they trapped
(28:36):
mini bears. I had think theyhad one recapture and you know they're not
just trapping and look at them,they're trapping a drawing blood samples, putting
collars on and doing you know,doing all the things you guys need to
do for research. But there wasone of the bear. I think it
was three hundred fifty or four hundredfifty pounds. Yeah, so he was
a particularly interesting bear. So hewas a big, old chunky guy because
(28:56):
he was actually a problem bear.He was coming in and he was eating
out of a local barbecue restaurant's dumpsters. Yeah. I mean we all like
barbecue, I get it. Yeah, but no one likes picking up the
trash that comes out of that afterwards, right, So he Yeah, he
was a particularly heavy bear. Mostof our animals are are males average more
(29:22):
around two hundred and twenty pounds,and our females average more around one hundred
and ten pounds. That's very cool. Yeah, it's a great video,
folks. Check it out. I'mgonna take a break here. On Honey
Matters KPRC nine fifty Dog Gold,Chad Goals, Now Go Tweet, ten
(29:52):
Mile Schools, Squeaen Cow Goals,Moove Frog Goals, Crowd Day, I
Love Fine, go Tude, DuciQuod Dud and the CSNG The Welcome Back
(30:18):
to Hunting Matters on KPRC nine fifty. This is Joe Bitar. I just
want to remind everybody we are anaward winning program, multi award winning,
award winning I love people that you'replaying children's songs. I've never heard the
pop version of that science well youknow it's it is what it is and
the kids song or the theme songfrom Friends. This is Elvis spelled with
(30:40):
why A Y L V I sthere's only one Elvis. Sorry, well
there's two. I'll take Evis Costelloas well. Okay, fair enough,
he's a close second. All right, folks, Welcome back to Huntymatters on
KPRC nine fifty. Our guest todayis doctor Mandaville's Dutt. She is a
carnivore specialist and a postdoctoral research scientistwith the Borderland's Research Institute. Doctor,
thank you once again for joining us. Thanks again for having me. We
(31:06):
could talk like an hour and ahalf or two hours just about black bears,
but I'm curious. Let's give let'sget our listeners a little bit of
advice here. What what is yourbest advice for I'm going to say,
what is the civilian population that's notfamiliar wildlife? If they come, if
they come in contact or if theyencounter a bear, whether it's in the
(31:26):
whether they're dumpster diving at their localbarbecue place, or they're out in you
know, big band. What shouldpeople do? Great question? Now that
black bears are more on the risein Texas, the best thing to do
is to stay calm and to getloud. So made lots of noise to
let the bear know that you arethere in case they weren't aware that you
(31:49):
were there. Bears have really greatsense of smell and hearing, but you
know, sometimes when they get focusedon food, they're not going to all
be totally aware of their surroundings.So make lots of noise and back away
slowly, still making lots of noise. Stay big, so don't ever crouch
(32:12):
down to the ground pick something up, even if you think maybe grabbing a
rock or a stick would help.By crouching down, you're going to make
yourself look smaller, more vulnerable.The best thing to do is just to
stay as big as possible and backaway slowly, And when you do get
to a safe location, you callyour local game wardens so Texas Parks and
(32:36):
Wildlife. If you are in theparks, you should call the National parks
service folks, but for the mostpart, calling Texas Parts and Wildlife,
letting them know that you've seen abear, potentially have an interaction with a
bear, and they'll be able toassess kind of the danger level of that
bear depending on how many sightings they'vehad of it, what kind of interactions
(33:00):
were had, and they'll make thebest decision on whether that requires management action
or not. Good advice, goodadvice. I'm curious, what is the
coolest thing you've seen through this project? What? What? What? What
has happened that either on video orthrough the through the research process that you
went wow that I had no clueof that. Has there been any any
(33:22):
big aha moments for you? Forme, it's just been the adaptability of
bears in this really arid, hotenvironment. I think a lot of people
tend to associate bears with winter andbig trees and hibernation, but you know,
they're here in the hot, arid, dry desert of West Texas and
(33:46):
we've seen some amazing adaptations with themdenning in rock piles high up in the
Chisos Mountains of the Big Bend,and you know, moving really far to
find resources. So one of ourmales moved one hundred and fifty miles from
(34:09):
where we taught him, and thatwasn't in you know, a single day
or anything, but that's that's quitea far distance to go in just a
few short weeks. So they're movinga lot, and they're displaying a lot
of unique behavior that I think willbe really beneficial for us to know comparing
(34:31):
them to kind of more standard bearpopulations in more northern latitudes. Yeah,
I've seen some of the footage thingsoff off the project and you know,
like you said, you've got youknow, you've got your outlier dumpster divers
that are really big bears, buta lot of the bears it almost appears
like you know, like you said, the adaptation process where they've you know,
their their hair is thinner, they'rea little bit smaller to you know,
(34:54):
you when you look at some speciesand I'm not a scientist by any
means, but when you look atsome a species versus other species, their
body style is acclimator, where likeyou know, like a desert rat will
have a bigger ears for ventilation.Same thing with rabbits that have do you
have bears in Texas physically adapted?We have not really noticed any physical differences
(35:19):
that are that obvious with our desertbears versus others. And but we haven't
not found any that so bears canbe more than just black across their range.
But we found that all of ourbears have been strictly that very dark
traditional black color. We had onewith a blaze on his chest, but
(35:43):
other than that, there's been nolike cinnamon or brown blackberries in our population,
which I find very interesting for ahot aired environment. Yeah, that
is I mean that I never eventhought about that. That is, that
is something. And what a Texasbears eat. I mean, I know
they're foragers, but some of thoseplaces you're finding bears, it's pretty bear
(36:05):
and in the pond. Yeah,so it's all very seasonal. But they
eat a lot of perkly pear fruits, they eat acorns if they're up in
high enough elevations. But they'll alsoyou know, they'll eat insects, so
they'll go find an ant nest andslip all those little guys up. They'll
(36:30):
also they'll rip out so tall plantsand they'll eat the roots of those or
like the more juicy meaty parts ofthose plants. We're finding so far that
our bears are pretty or vigorous.We've documented a couple instances of scavenging and
(36:51):
potential true carnivory, but that's beenof a very small young pavelina so far,
mostly plants and bugs right now,Funny you say that on Thursday there
was a video Wednesday there was avideo of a black bear at a picnic
table in Monterey, Mexico, andthe family sitting there and joining a party
(37:14):
or whatever, and hops up onthe table and the mom grabs the kid
obviously just shields the kid from lookingat this black bear who just casually eats
their tacos on the picnic table.So everything the doctor said, you can
add tacos to that too, andobviously barbecue and bar because there's video proof,
video evidence of black bear just standingthere eating casually while the parents are
(37:37):
petrified that this black bears on theirtable. That's very cool. Doctor.
We're about out of time here realquickly. Can you tell Is there a
place where people can go and keepup with the project. Yeah, they
can come check out all of ourwork at the Borderland's Research Institute website,
(37:58):
and we have lots of states onpublic events and our research and any of
those resource materials that we have availablefor how to live safely with theirs or
yeah, just those kind of ourstandard research publications as well. Perfect well,
(38:20):
I want to say thank you forbeing on the show and thank you
as well for for what you're doing. I mean, you know, hunters,
I'm not blowing our own horn here, but hunters are you know a
lot of hunters out there are thebig some of the biggest conservations in the
world. I think I think it'svery cool to see these these populations start
to come back in Texas, andit's not only does it take time and
(38:44):
money, but it also takes intelligentpeople like you that are going out there
and have a passion for this andmaking sure whether it's asto or bear or
mountainin or whatever it is, thatthese species are are hopefully going to be
around for our kids and our grandkidsto see and enjoy. So thank you
for that at Thank you so much, and thank you for your support of
(39:05):
our project. And we really couldn'tdo this type of work without dedicated folks
like yourselves who genuinely care about ourresources. So thank you. Yeah,
there's there's remonst carnivore right there,parking in the background. What kind of
a studio is this. We're nothingbut professional dock. So well, thank
you once again, folks. That'sall the time we have here on Hunting
(39:29):
Matters KPRC nine fifty. We willhopefully see you next week. Have a
great weekend end the stock markets downand you'll fully get you
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