Teeth with a story

A black bear walks along a dirt road in the late afternoon in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County in this 1998 file photo. (Jim Bounds/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT)

Bear teeth help scientists monitor black bear populations.

WHENEVER a black bear is killed in North Carolina in the United States, whether by a car or a hunter, Colleen Olfenbuttel wants a small part of the animal: the two tiny teeth just behind the upper canines.