They sampled 729 bears and the official total population is 757?!?!
No freaking way they sampled over 96% of the population! The Federal Kenai Peninsula brown bear study came up with a similar projected population while noting they missed huge numbers of bears known to be in the sample areas. And all they were using was hair traps at bait piles.
I forget their actual sample size, but it was below 50% and they were doing all they could to minimize the count.
To suggest their population figure is anything more than politically inspired "Keep the number as small as possible" horseschit is ridiculous.
The 729 bears were sampled during the period from 1982-2007.
