The VT Black Bear Research Center (BBRC) Project

2012--2016

The BBRC, launched by Dr. Mike Vaughan in 1989, housed orphaned and/or nuisance black bears temporarily over Winter for research, outreach, and education. We studied cub growth, development, and maternal effects on cub behavior.

We fostered orphaned cubs to captive females and studied the behavior of acceptance, adoption, or rejection.

We used hormone analyses to study pseudo-pregnancy in bears and we explored the role of satellite cells in preventing muscle loss during hibernation.

Follow Bernardo Mesa on Twitter. And for a peek at some past bear videos, click here.