RALEIGH, N.C. — Black bears along North Carolina’s coast carry noticeably less genetic variety than their cousins in the mountains, a gap that could leave the eastern population more fragile over time, according to new research from N.C. State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
The team sequenced the full genomes of 76 bears drawn from two of the state’s three bear management regions, 49 from the mountains and 27 from the coast. The Piedmont, the third region, was not part of the sample.
The DNA sorted the animals into three genetic clusters. Mountain bears split into two separate groups that both look healthy, likely helped by bears wandering freely across the Appalachians and mixing with animals from neighboring states. The coastal bears formed a single group with lower diversity and signs of inbreeding, even though the coast is estimated to hold more bears.
Researchers point to habitat. When they layered in land-use data, they found the coastal region has changed far more than the mountains, with highways, subdivisions and other building hemming bears into small breeding pockets. Some of the reduced diversity may also trace back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, when bear numbers were badly depleted.
The work also produced a practical tool. Scientists assembled a panel of genetic markers known as SNPs that works like a fingerprint, showing which region a bear came from and identifying the individual animal. Wildlife managers could use it to monitor the population, and officers could use it in poaching cases to spot a bear that was hauled into a region it did not come from.
The researchers plan to share the findings with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, which manages bear hunting and conservation. They are also working with the university’s engineering school on a handheld device that could read a hair or cheek-swab sample in the field. The study was published in the journal Genes.
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