A Helping hand For the Black Bear

Glossary

Arboreal: Living in trees.

Beechnut: The fruit of the American beech tree (nut).

Binocular loupe (or stereomicroscope): A low magnification instrument used to observe objects and see them in three dimensions.

Carnivore: Order of mammals characterized by a dentition adapted to a flesh-based diet (e.g. meat).

Cessna 172: A small, four-seat aircraft.

Colony: Grouping of organisms living closely together and belonging to the same species.

Competition: Interaction between organisms striving to obtain the same resources in a given environment.

Darwin: Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) was an English naturalist whose work on the evolution of the species revolutionized the field of biology. He formulated a hypothesis according to which all species evolved over time from one or a few common ancestors through the process of natural selection.

Den: The shelter, aboveground or underground, of certain mammals.

Ecology: The scientific study of the relationship of living organisms to one another and to their environment.

Emigration: The departure of organisms from a population or given region.

Fasting: To go without any food for a certain amount of time.

Foetus: An animal’s unborn offspring, which already possesses the recognizable features of the species.

Gestation: The physiological activity or state of a female carrying one or more young, between conception and parturition.

Glucose: A sugar that is very common in nature.

Habitat: The area in which an organism lives and finds food, water, shelter, living space and other essentials it needs to survive.

Immigration: The arrival of organisms in a population or a defined area.

Litter: The number of offspring that a female carries and gives birth to at one time.

Metabolism: The set of processes that transform matter and energy, which allow an organism to live.

Nursing: The act of giving maternal milk to newborns or the young.

Parcel: A portion of forest that is substantially homogenous.

Parturition: The act of giving birth.

Population: Number of individuals of the same species that live and reproduce within a given territory.

Predator: Organism that kills and feeds on other animals.

Prescribed burning: The act of deliberately setting fire, in a controlled way, to a parcel of forest.  Parks Canada uses this technique to imitate nature and thus restore forests, and for security reasons, to prevent severe fires from occurring.

Radio collar: Collar used to locate or track a wild animal. Radio collar technology can be based on radio waves, radar or GPS.

Regulate: To control, maintain and direct a phenomenon.

Ruminant: An animal that chews its food a second time after it has passed through its stomach, where it underwent a first chemical transformation. Bovids, such as cows and bison, and cervids, such as deer and moose, are ruminants.

Species: Group of similar organisms who have relatively identical genetic characteristics and who breed exclusively among themselves, therefore producing viable and fertile young.

Telemetry: Consists in fitting an animal with a transmitter that can then be located using specialized equipment that picks up the signals. Each animal has a different signal; therefore, it is easy to distinguish them, even though they cannot be seen.

Territory: An expanse of land defended by an animal, mating pair or group of animals to prevent other animals of the same or different species from intruding during a relatively long period of time, depending on the activities taking place.