{"id":457001,"date":"2026-02-08T20:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457001\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T20:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:43:17","slug":"recognizing-the-scent-of-barren-ground-grizzly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457001\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognizing the scent of barren-ground grizzly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Washington State University doctoral student Ellery Vincent, left, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jordan Pruszenski take measurements and samples of an anesthetized grizzly bear on the North Slope of Alaska prior to installing a video collar in August 2025. (Rob Kozakiewicz \/ Associated Press) <\/p>\n

Unlike most of us, Jordan Pruszenski has held in her arms the following wild animals: wolves, caribou, beavers, muskrats, musk oxen, emperor geese and moose.<\/p>\n

Also, as part of her job, she a few times each year wraps one of Alaska\u2019s farthest-north grizzlies in her arms, stretching a tape measure along its ribs, her chin sinking into its blond fur.<\/p>\n

Pruszenski is an assistant area biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. She and her co-workers are responsible for monitoring a chunk of northeastern Alaska as large as some states \u2014 from the Dalton Highway and Yukon River over to the Canada border and the Arctic Ocean.<\/p>\n

A current project is finding out more about barren ground grizzlies, the smallest of Alaska\u2019s grizzly bears, which live north of the Brooks Range. Pruszenski works with graduate student Ellery Vincent of Washington State University placing cameras on the necks of female grizzlies to answer basic questions about the animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many are there? We don\u2019t have a good population estimate,\u201d Pruszenski said. \u201cWe (also) want to get a better understanding of how they are interacting with their environment during the short summer season.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get closer to the goal, Pruszenski darts bears from a helicopter with a tranquilizer gun. She aims for the rump in the spring, the shoulder in the summer \u2014 when the rump is too fat to allow proper penetration. <\/p>\n

\"\"Biologist Jordan Pruszenski measures an anesthetized bear during May 2025. Biologists take measurements and samples before attaching a satellite\/ video collar to the bear\u2019s neck. (Photo by Alaska Department of Fish and Game) <\/p>\n

After the bear stops moving, the helicopter pilot lands. Pruszenski and Vincent step out, install a GPS collar with a video camera and then perform measurements of the animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of work we do involves spending large amounts of time in confined spaces and high-stress situations together, and Jordan is able to get the job done and still make me laugh through all of it,\u201d Vincent said.<\/p>\n

Pruszenski said she appreciates working with a team that cares about the animals\u2019 health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty amazing, but we all realize the responsibility for the well-being of that bear,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone is willing to take a step back \u2014 like if they see an animal is too hot, they will let it cool down before taking data. There\u2019s no reason to rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are doing this kind of work you are ultimately responsible for that animal\u2019s well-being while you are handling it,\u201d Vincent said. \u201cSo, I am primarily focused on the seriousness of that responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Collar cams offer a bear\u2019s eye view into the lives of grizzlies on Alaska\u2019s North Slope<\/a>]<\/p>\n

While operating smoothly and slowly, Pruszenski pulls a tape measure from her vest. A bear\u2019s girth is one of the desired measurements. It requires Pruszenski to apply a true bear hug for a few seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey smell pretty good,\u201d she said. \u201cA little musty. Kind of like dry tundra.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"This image, made from a video taken from a grizzly bear’s collar camera, shows two grizzly bears interacting on Alaska’s North Slope. (Image courtesy Ellery Vincent \/ Washington State University) <\/p>\n

As a girl dad, I imagined what it must be like to have a daughter who knows what a live grizzly bear smells like.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s hanging out of an R44 helicopter darting moose and bears,\u201d her father, Stan Pruszenski, said over the phone from Arizona. \u201cThat\u2019s unique for anyone, especially a woman. Her mother (Mary Jo) and I are extremely proud of where\u2019s she\u2019s come and how she\u2019s gotten there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stan Pruszenski spent 30 years busting game-law violators as a plainclothes criminal investigator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He was twice stationed in Anchorage, where Jordan and her sister grew up, as well as in California and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people know the name, but I think (Jordan)\u2019s gotten where she is in spite of me,\u201d he said. \u201cShe shines on her own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan Pruszenski\u2019s uncommon closeness to a variety of animals began with a wolf-monitoring project in Idaho. That led to her completing a master\u2019s degree at the University of Minnesota on the wolves of northern Minnesota. That experience helped her land her current job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always really loved animals and being outside,\u201d she said. \u201cI really lucked out getting to be part of the wolf world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stan Pruszenski said Jordan had a turtle when she was 8 \u2014 she remembers a toad named Hopper \u2014 but he and Mary Jo didn\u2019t see the spark to become a biologist until she enrolled in a high school biology class with an influential teacher.<\/p>\n

Following the example of her father, a pilot for more than 35 years, Pruszenski is also now a \u201cbaby pilot\u201d for the department in Fairbanks. To earn the many flight hours necessary to fly for a state agency, Pruszenski rented aircraft at flight school in Arizona while visiting her parents.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jordan Pruszenski and her dog Myo after Pruszenski landed her plane on the Coal Creek airstrip in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Park and Preserve in September 2025. (Photo courtesy Jordan Pruszenski) <\/p>\n

\u201cThe upper management up there encouraged her,\u201d Stan Pruszenski said. \u201cAnything you can do to make yourself a little unique in a competitive environment is a good thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been avid in her pursuit of the necessary hours and accomplishments needed to begin flying state aircraft,\u201d said Alaska Department of Fish and Game Regional Supervisor Lincoln Parrett. \u201cIt seemed like every time I was in the air for work or personal flying this summer, she was too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a biologist pilot will allow Jordan Pruszenski to more efficiently study the sheep, musk oxen, grizzlies and the caribou that roam northeastern Alaska by the thousands.<\/p>\n

It will allow her to get up close and personal with creatures few of us will ever sniff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re impressed every day,\u201d Stan Pruszenski said of he and Mary Jo. \u201cTo hug these animals and smell their breath \u2014 I can\u2019t even imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington State University doctoral student Ellery Vincent, left, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jordan Pruszenski…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[213556,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-457001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-grizzly-sample","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}