Researchers are using collars equipped with radios and Global Positioning System devices to study bear populations in Alberta and British Columbia.

A team of graduate students is tracking bears fitted with the collars to look at the impact of hunting, and such things as industrial encroachment on bear habitats.

The research will also provide data on where grizzly bears roam, which will help human populations know how to avoid them.

The study is monitoring such things as the percentage and gender of adult bears and young bears. It also compares the satellite images with conditions on the ground. By combining bear movement with satellite imagery, they are getting a better picture of where bears prefer to live.

The Alberta government recently enacted a three-year ban on the province's spring grizzly hunt after a survey suggested the number of bears was much lower than previously thought.

Not everyone thinks hunting bears is the problem, and the issue is a complicated one, with several factors that at first glance might seem contradictory.

"Our results suggest that the higher survival rates of cubs is actually due to the lower density of bears in an area," said Sophie Czetwertynski, a PhD candidate in biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. That theory fits what researchers have uncovered about black bears, she said.

Researchers hope to learn how much of this data fits different types of bear populations.

Black bear cub survival was actually higher in areas where black bears were hunted, compared with areas where bears are not hunted, said Czetwertynski. Researchers think that's because when hunters remove adult black bears from the population, it leaves more room for the immature bears.

Hunting mortality represents less than half of bear mortalities in Alberta.

The researchers have discovered that Alberta bear populations are stressed from the effort of trying to avoid humans, an effort that grows increasingly difficult with the expansion of industry into the wilderness.

Researchers also found that there are more adult males in hunted populations, while there are more adult females in unhunted populations.

This is puzzling, because hunters tend to favor bagging male bears. Researchers aren't sure of the reason, but speculate that a large number of adult males in a beer population may keep young males away from the area. By the end of the study, they hope to have a more concrete idea of the impact of hunting on bear populations.

They also hope to learn more about bear behaviour.

"We're covering the whole province and we're trying to cover every sub-region possible, so the lower valley floors, up the sides of mountains, and even up in the alpine to get all different kinds of ground cover," said research team leader David Laskin, an MA student at the University of Calgary.

Human-bear encounters can be dangerous. Laskin said that the research team tries to make a lot of noise so the bears will avoid them.

When you come across a "snorting bush" that means there's a bear in there, making its presence known, said Laskin.

With a report by CTV's Sarah Galashan