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John Beecham Biography
John Beecham "discovered" wildlife as a profession while working on a Bachelor of Science degree at TexasTech University. After graduation, he moved to Idaho to work on a Masters in Wildlife at the University of Idaho. His thesis topic was the "Breeding biology of the Golden Eagle in Southwestern Idaho." In 1972, as a research biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish & Game, John began a long-term study of black bears in the state. Over the course of the next several years, he worked on black bears in six different areas of the state. John has captured and handled close to 1500 black bears since 1972, written many scientific papers and co-authored a book on Idaho black bears with Jeff Rohlman in 1994 titled A Shadow in the Forest-Idaho's black Bear. John completed his Ph.D. in 1980 at the University of Montana writing his dissertation on Black Bear Ecology in Idaho. John retired from Fish &
Game in 1999 and went to work for the Hornocker Wildlife Institute,
based in Bozeman, Montana. He currently oversees all their field projects
in the western United States and has some involvement in helping to
design their field research on Asiatic black bears and brown bears
in the Russian Far East. John's goal at the Institute is to assist
in getting the organization involved in more bear research throughout
the world. |