You can win a black bear den visit with Maine biologists

AUGUSTA (WGME) -- How cool is this! You could win a visit to a black bear den with Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife biologists!

Every winter, biologists visit more than 75 dens of female black bears. Officials say these visits are part of the country’s longest run bear study that monitors the health of the bear population by checking on adult bears and their cubs.

The visits let biologists know how many cubs are born, and how many cubs survive until a year old. Some female cubs are fitted with a tracking collar, bears are weighed, and blood samples are taken for testing.

The department says the contest winner and a friend will join a team of biologists in the field to locate a radio-collared bear at its winter den and observe as the biologists immobilize the bear and collect important biological data from the bear.

This is an opportunity for a first-hand look at the work of a wildlife biologist in the field, and a chance to learn more about wildlife management in Maine.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife will select the contest winner from entries completed HERE.

You must be at least 18 years-old to be enter the contest, and the Bear Den Experience entry deadline is Feb. 19 at noon.

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife says they began the Keeper of the Maine Outdoors Experience contest last spring to give the public the opportunity for a day-in-the-life experience with a biologist or game warden to learn how they protect Maine wildlife or serve in the Maine outdoors.

Maine is home to more than 35,000 black bears. Bears live throughout the state but the majority of the population resides primarily in northern and eastern Maine and can survive 30 years in the wild, according to biologists.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife says their bear monitoring program began in 1975 and plays an important part in the department’s mission to have a stabilized bear population.