Fecal DNA methods for differentiating grizzly bears from american black bears

Cost effective methods to rapidly confirm the presence of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) could contribute to their conservation. Although methods to differentiate mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of grizzly bears from those of American black bears (U. americanus) have already been published, these require automated sequencing equipment. We present a method using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis of mtDNA from fecal samples to differentiate these 2 bear species without the use of automated equipment.