Presentation Summary

Why do bears rub against trees, fence posts, power poles, and all sorts of other things? For decades, biologists have proposed a variety of explanations, yet the answer remains surprisingly elusive.

In this Wildlife Wednesday presentation, Miranda Many explores the fascinating world of bear rubbing, from the remarkable sense of smell that shapes bear behavior to the competing hypotheses scientists have proposed to explain this familiar yet still mysterious behavior. She'll also discuss how bear rubbing has become an important tool for non-invasive wildlife research and why a fresh look at the scientific evidence suggests we know far less than many people think. Along the way, you'll enjoy plenty of entertaining remote-camera footage capturing bears behaving naturally when they think no one is watching, offering a rare glimpse into one of wildlife's most captivating behaviors.

Presenter Bio

Miranda Many is a Ph.D. student in Biology at Old Dominion University, where she studies wildlife ecology under Dr. Laura Grieneisen. She earned her bachelor's degree in Biology, with a minor in Chemistry, from Berry College, graduating summa cum laude. Her field experience spans Peru, Iceland, Spain, and the southeastern United States, where she has worked on projects involving Andean bears, carnivores, marine mammals, camera trapping, wildlife monitoring, and conservation. Miranda is a co-author of a comprehensive review of bear rubbing behavior, conducted by the Center for Wildlife Studies, examining how a better understanding of this remarkable behavior can improve non-invasive wildlife research and strengthen conservation. She is passionate about wildlife behavior, scientific rigor, and helping bridge the gap between ecological research and practical conservation.

Dr. Jeff Stetz is a wildlife ecologist, Assistant Professor, and Director of Science for the Center for Wildlife Studies whose career-long research has focused extensively on bears and non-invasive wildlife monitoring.  Both his M.S. and Ph.D. research examined bear rubbing behavior, and he has continued to use bear rubs extensively in his research on black and brown bears.  In one Montana project alone, his team monitored nearly 5,000 bear rubs to investigate bear behavior and develop non-invasive approaches to studying bear populations.

Jeff has published extensively on wildlife ecology, bear biology, and non-invasive population monitoring.  He has been a Certified Wildlife Biologist® through The Wildlife Society and has served as an Associate Editor for The Journal of Wildlife Management and since 2017.  His research has combined behavioral ecology, genetic sampling, spatial capture-recapture, and other approaches to better understand and monitor wildlife populations.  His years of working directly with bear rubs ultimately led him to a deceptively simple question: what do we really know about why bears rub?  That question is now the focus of a comprehensive, invited review of bear rubbing research being conducted with Miranda Many through the Center for Wildlife Studies.