Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is embarking on its first formal black bear research initiative to track local bear populations, evaluate diets, and reduce encounters between visitors and wildlife. The three-year effort comes as human-bear interactions become a more frequent reality across the national park.
A $165,000 grant awarded to the nonprofit Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes is funding the research. The grant originates from the National Park Foundation as part of a broader $12 million investment package announced on Oct. 20. That wider funding distribution supports 30 distinct projects spanning more than 40 national parks across the country, focusing on public safety, visitor experiences, and natural resource management.
To conduct the research without harming or directly capturing the animals, teams will deploy noninvasive hair snares throughout the park. As bears pass through these station setups, the snares collect hair samples. Scientists will perform DNA analysis on the collected hair to distinguish individual bears, establish genetic profiles, and monitor how the area's population is expanding.
Alongside genetic tracking, the study will focus heavily on analyzing what the bears are eating. By examining their diet, researchers hope to gain critical insights into forage patterns and identify what draws bears toward populated visitor zones. National park officials plan to share the resulting data to coordinate long-term management strategies alongside state and tribal partners.
Local incidents underline the practical need for the research effort. In 2024, a black bear raided the Grocer’s Daughter chocolate shop in Empire, situated less than a half-mile from the park’s Philip A. Hart Visitor Center. During that incident, the bear made off with a 50-pound bag of sugar. Following a second break-in attempt at the local business, Michigan Department of Natural Resources staff captured and relocated the animal, bringing an end to its sugar-seeking sweep through the village.
With bears currently settling into their dens for winter hibernation, research partners are preparing for full project operations as field work begins. The study comes at a time when the National Park Foundation is expanding its overall innovation grant commitments to nearly $25 million for 2026. The foundation reviewed more than 200 project proposals this year, drawing funding from private donors and partner organizations including Lilly Endowment Inc., Peter and Betsy Chung, Robert and Kitty Brunswick, Cody J. Smith, The Ball Foundation, and Arconic Foundation.
National Park Foundation Chief Program Officer Mike Reynolds noted in a public announcement that national parks rely on ongoing innovation to address modern challenges. The foundation indicated that the research techniques designed at Sleeping Bear Dunes could eventually serve as a model for other national parks dealing with similar wildlife management issues.
