MARQUETTE — Northern Michigan University 2021 alumna Sarah Trujillo has co-authored a scholarly article on bear baiting that was published Monday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Trujillo earned a master’s degree at NMU and is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. She worked on her article alongside Grant Hilderbrand, Andee Sears, Peter Christian, David Payer and Mary Hake.

The article focuses on Alaska, where more than 70% of National Park Service-managed lands and preserves are open to some form of hunting. Its goal is to use expert opinion to inform decision-making in that state and other areas where bear baiting is allowed.

Fourteen National Park Service technical experts and 28 non-NPS bear research and management biologists completed anonymous questionnaires on the practice of bear baiting. Their consensus is that baiting: is functionally equivalent to feeding bears; can lead bears to defend a bait station as they would a carcass; may condition animals to associate humans with food; alters bear natural behavior and the broader ecosystem, including impacting other wildlife species that consume the bait; and increases the likelihood bears will be killed in defense of life and property. The NPS experts considered the risks to human visitors in the moderate to high range.

“Bear baiting is more complicated when hunting and non-hunting activities occur in the same area,” said Diana Lafferty, associate professor of wildlife ecology at Northern Michigan University and lead author of the publication. “There are also challenges when there are overlapping jurisdictions with differing legal mandates that shape policies. For example, state agencies manage wildlife harvest, wildlife populations and hunters. The NPS prioritizes safeguarding natural ecosystem processes unaltered by human activities while providing visitor services and ensuring public safety.”

In Alaska, state regulations allow bear baiting with few restrictions on the type or amount of bait used. Individuals can register and maintain multiple bait stations in the same general area, but all must be located at least one-fourth of a mile from roads and trails and 1 mile from cabins/dwellings. With limited road and trail access to and within Alaska National Park and Preserve, there is an increased chance of conflict between hunting and other activities.

One finding of the study is that the current mitigation strategies to minimize public safety risks and potential property damage are inadequate.

The article can be found at journals.plos.org under the name “Bear baiting risks and mitigations: An assessment using expert opinion analyses.”