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By Cherie Winner, Washington State Magazine

Contact: Cherie Winner, Washington State Magazine,cwinner@wsu.edu 509/335-4486

Biology by the numbers

Robert Wielgus has studied grizzly bears in Idaho, cougars in British Columbia, and lynx in Washington. So when the Washington State University expert on large carnivores took a sabbatical two years ago, of course he went to . . . Paris.

Wielgus went to France to help restore grizzly bears to the Pyrenees Mountains. It was a project made to order for Wielgus, who began his career as a field ecologist but who now uses math to gain insight into carnivore behavior.

"I do field work here all the time," Wielgus says. "Then I go there and just immerse myself in mathematics. I've worked with them [the French] for a long period of time, and together we do amazing things.

Read the full story from Washington State Magazine.

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