While most humans avoid big bears, Wildlife Forever President Doug Grann flew to Alaska to assist a brown bear research team in the removal of radio collars. Doug grabbed eight bears, some weighing more than 1,500 pounds, by the neck over the course of a week. The tracking devices were placed on the bears more than five years ago. This was the first time in history that telemetry collars were removed from study animals following completion of the research. The brown bears were part of an ongoing research project at the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge with support from Wildlife Forever. Wildlife biologists tracked the bears to determine their lifestyles. Scientists wanted to know where and when they denned, what they ate, how they interacted with other bears and numerous other questions. The answers are providing guidelines for wildlife managers to protect and conserve the bear population.