The Naturalist (The Naturalist #1)(22)

“Just e-mail me through the website I’m guessing you found me on and I’ll send it to you. And if I ask for a Brilliant grant, maybe you could put in a word for me?”

“Absolutely.”

Science can be like that. Just give off the right signals and you’re accepted.

Five minutes later I’m in her database poring through hundreds of entries describing different brown and black bears they’ve counted.

Each one has a code, like UA20.22.06. Some also have nicknames from field researchers studying their behavior: Honeypot, Paddington, Paddington 2, Winnie, Booboo, Tricky Dick.

The associated entries explain how they came by their names. Some are random—Tricky Dick was a black bear that managed to get three different sows pregnant at the same time.

It takes me a little while, but I manage to find the DNA database. I upload the file Julian sent me and quickly get a match for the bear hair from Juniper’s wounds.

I pull up the animal’s file, and his name gives me a chill.

Ripper.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


APEX

Ripper’s file contains information collected from hair traps—strands of barbed wire used to snare follicles (the part with nuDNA)—scat, paw prints, and tracking points from when they had him GPS collared for a year.

It’s like an NSA database on the animal. It literally tells me what he had for breakfast on some occasions. Moose. Lots of moose.

Ripper got his name because of how he’d slice open the stomachs of his prey. He preferred long gouges.

Maybe to savor the moose juices? I can only imagine why.

There’s also a lineage showing his relatives and offspring. He’s known to have one surviving cub, just called UA.354.222. I assume that means nobody has even made a connection between an observed bear and his offspring’s DNA.

The GPS tracking dots overlay onto a map showing his range. Apparently his stalking grounds are ten miles from here. Although it’s not unusual for a bear to go outside his territory.

Unfortunately, the GPS information ended last year, so there’s no telling how far he traveled before ending up in this neck of the woods.

A list of hair traps shows a slightly wider range. It appears that many of these data points came before he was collared.

It’s odd—probably because I don’t know any better—that he never ventured over the ridge until now.

Maybe he killed Juniper because he was in unfamiliar territory? Detective Glenn mentioned something about a pass getting shut down from a mudslide. Ripper might have been going on a trek and found himself stuck here.

It’s all speculation on my part.

People tend to think that scientists are experts in all things, when in fact we can be so specialized we know less than a layperson about many scientific topics—like bear behavior.

In the file I also find a photo of Ripper when he was tranquilized for the GPS collar. He looks a lot like how I saw him when he was lying dead on the blue tarp. Ferocious and peaceful at the same time. Here he’s missing a claw on his left front paw.

Claws are basically sharp toenails and grow back after time. I think he had a full set when I saw him. Do they grow back annually?

Still, I’d like to compare. Even though they haven’t done a press conference yet, there has to be a photo online.

Sure enough, a few searches later, I find that the Bozeman Chronicle has an article. It’s a menacing shot of Ripper, his snout facing the camera with his canines bared.

Suspected Killer Grizzly Caught by Fish and Wildlife BOZEMAN, Mont. Off-the-record sources have confirmed that a tracker with Fish and Wildlife has positively identified and killed the grizzly bear believed to be responsible for the death of a scientist who was doing research near Filmount County. A contact at Wildlife Genetics International said the grizzly has been DNA matched to a bear known as UA.223.334.

The press is going to go nuts over the bear’s nickname when that gets out.

I check Ripper’s file again to see if anyone at Ursa Major has updated his file since the capture.

The most recent entry was last year. I guess the grad student in charge of it is a bit overburdened.

As I close the browser window and the case on Ripper, something catches my eye.

I reload the page to see what it was.

This is odd.

UA.221.999 / “Ripper”

This index number is different from the one in the article.

Do bears have multiple entries?

I type UA.223.334 into the database to see if they’re cross-referenced.

A new file appears on the screen.

UA.223.334 / “Bart”

It’s a description of a totally different bear.

This one has hair-trap samples much closer to here. I pull up a photo. It’s a long-distance shot of him walking across a meadow.

Bart looks an awful lot like Ripper, but even to my untrained eye, they appear to be different bears.

Though I know a bear can put on several hundred pounds before winter and I’m not sure how you tell them apart, to be honest.

I download Bart’s DNA file and load it into a viewer.

This is curious. He and Ripper are related, but there are lots of different gene sequences. About what you’d expect from distant cousins. But not what you’d get from the same animal.

I check the article and the database again just to be certain.