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Profs and Pints DC presents: “Why I Choose the Bear,” on the habits and virtues of Ursus americanus, with Jennifer M. Mullinax, associate professor of wildlife ecology and environmental science at the University of Maryland and veteran black bear researcher.
“Man or bear?” asks a recent viral meme intended to draw attention to the risks that women face. Coming to the Profs and Pints stage to offer American black bears’ perspective is Dr. Jennifer Mullinax, who has spent more than 25 years trapping, collaring, and tracking black bears and other large animals.
In a talk that promises to be more fun than a pic-a-nic with Yogi and Boo-Boo, Professor Mullinex will discuss her research on black bears from Maryland to Louisiana to Tennessee. She’ll describe how researchers trap black bears and study their movements and behaviors, offering her own accounts of climbing 60 foot-trees to listen to cubs and of crawling into mother bears’ ground dens.
She’ll dive into the history of black bears populations in the Eastern United States and discuss bear ecology, describing how black bears survive in an ever-urbanizing world. You’ll learn how this once-disappearing charismatic megafauna is now expanding across the Eastern United States.
Professor Mullinax also will discuss bears’ omnivorous habits – with their tastes running from cheeseburgers to American cancer-root – and how they make they it through winter months without eating at all.
Finally, she’ll offer tips for dealing with bears that will increase your odds of walking away safely should you ever encounter one in the woods. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: An American black bear in Shenandoah National Park. (Photo by D. Machado / National Park Service.)
