A brown bear walks on the tundra in Katmai National Park and Preserve on Aug. 11, 2023. (Courtesy/ F. Jimenez/National Park Service)

Time and again, colleagues told bear biologist Beth Rosenberg that her quest to develop a new and less invasive way of identifying and studying Alaska’s brown bears was a futile one. There were simply too many obstacles, too many unknowns, to overcome. 

“It just won’t work,” she heard repeatedly.

Inspired by her hero,…