Bear facts in Alaska feature story

There's a well-written story in The Anchorage Daily News on the grizzly bear population in Alaska's largest city. And what's got to be the first "Interactive Bear Map" I've seen on a daily newspaper website.

The story is by Doug O'Harra of the Daily News. It's a model feature story, a writeup of a scientific study of nine bears that were tranquilized last summer and fitted with global positioning devices. The study -- and the ADN's online bear map -- tracked their movements in and around the city. O'Harra sets it up with a bear's-eye lede that tells a story. Here's how:

The young male grizzly bear weighed maybe 500 pounds. Over the summer, he scarfed down salmon and ate moose. He spent a few breathless nights chasing bliss with a brunette sow deep in the mountains.

A story from deep in the Alaska wilderness? Not quite.

Almost entirely unseen, Bear 208 roamed the streets and parks of Alaska's largest city over much of last summer and early fall, from East Anchorage across the Hillside to Turnagain Arm [the city's waterfront]. He crossed Tudor Road [a major traffic artery] into densely populated neighborhoods at least once, the movement tracked by a global positioning system device on a collar around his neck. But except for snacking on a few domestic sheep in a South Anchorage back yard and raiding a bit of dog food, the bear, 5 or 6 years old, spurned human edibles in favor of silver and king salmon in local streams.

And he had friends.

See how O'Harra cuts back and forth from telling the bear's story to setting up the wildlife study? The "friends" in the fourth graf are the scientists, and the reference leads right into the nut graf. Actually two grafs followed by a two-graf quote:

A military-funded tracking study of Anchorage grizzly bears found that these large, intelligent omnivores don't just make quick trips to the city's edge and then retreat to some remote wilderness up in the Chugach Mountains.

They spend the summer close to people, largely out of sight in parks and on military land. Some of them seem as adept at urban life as any traffic-savvy moose from the neighborhood.

"It's kind of startling to realize these brown bears are in our midst," said state research biologist Sean Farley, who oversaw the research.

"There is not another city like this in the world that has wild brown bears in this close proximity to people like we have here," he said. "To have bears come in so close to people and not cause problems is really remarkable."

A couple of things may need explaining here: (1) Moose are as much of a road hazard in Alaska as deer are in central Illinois; and (2) the "4 Ws" don't all come right at the top of a feature story. Typically, they're strung out over several grafs.

So here we are down to the eighth graf, and we're still working in the who-what-where-when's. Bears not just wandering around but apparently living in Anchorage last summer. Look how deftly O'Harra explains how many bears we're talking about. He transitions with one of his short grafs:

How many bears live in and around Anchorage?

Biologists aren't really sure. About 60 brown, or grizzly, bears are thought to live between the Knik River and Turnagain Arm, with a dozen more foraging in or near town. At least 250 black bears are thought to overlap the area, with a third foraging in or near town.

Those are just estimates, though, based on studies in the Susitna Valley that were extrapolated to the municipality. It's hard to actually count bears.

Leaving the reader, no doubt, to nod his head in agreement.

O'Harra's use of quotes is worth studying, too. Notice how he transitions into a quote with a short graf, then highlights the quote by beginning and ending another graf with the quoted material, tucking the attribution (the so-and-so-said tag that English teachers would call a signal phrase) inside:

The tracking study provides new information about where a group of tagged grizzlies went, and how they behaved.

"They're not visitors, they're not tourists," said Rick Sinnott, area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "They inhabit the (Anchorage) Bowl just like the rest of us."

Nine bears captured last May and fitted with special collars that can log locations every 90 minutes often toured for weeks at a time within shouting distance of homes or five-lane boulevards.

"We already knew there were bears there -- that's not a surprise," said assistant area biologist Jessy Coltrane, who helped Farley with the study. "We thought they were using the creek and moving off, but they're using the creek and staying. They're living in Far North Bicentennial Park."

So once we get into the body of the story, the quotes keep it moving along. Toward the end, O'Harra repeats advice that's often repeated for the benefit of newcomers to Alaska.

The study, which continues next summer, suggests that Anchorage residents should assume brown bears live near city salmon streams and behave accordingly. Manage garbage properly. Don't sneak through the brush. Use common sense and make noise when hiking.

"The take-home message is there are bears in the woods," Coltrane said. "If you live in an area that's adjacent to natural habitat, then you live in bear country."

And O'Harra uses the same writing technique, a transitional graf leading into a quote, to bring up another subject that's been in the pages of the ADN:

The study also showed the importance of salmon to brown bears inside the city. Increase the number of fish by removing dams or opening culverts on urban streams -- projects proposed for Ship and Chester creeks -- and the number of bears will increase too.

"If you enhance it, the bears will come," Farley said. "That doesn't mean that you don't enhance it. ... But you have to do it with open eyes, because if you have urban fisheries, you're going to have brown bears."

And O'Harra's story, like so many of the best feature stories, ends with a quote:

By late fall, most of the collars had stopped working. Farley had tracked three or four bears to den sites in the Chugach Mountains. He hopes to catch up with them next spring.

"That joke about Anchorage being good because it's close to Alaska, well it's not really true if you're talking about brown bears," he said. "They're already here.

"It's Alaska. It's bear country. People should not be afraid. Just be aware of it."

Unlike hard-news writing, which still follows the inverted pyramid style, a feature ends with a kicker. And this one, if you'll forgive the expression, bears up under examination.

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