Bears as antibiotic‑resistance sentinels

Sequencing gut microbiomes from opportunistic wild feeders (e.g., black bears) can reveal environmental antibiotic contamination and the spread of resistant bacteria that wildlife then disperse. Because bears sample broad diets and have simple gut transit, their feces (or intestinal contents) function as distributed biosensors for One Health surveillance. — If validated, wildlife microbiome monitoring could become a low‑cost, geographically distributed sentinel system that flags environmental antibiotic pollution and guides interventions in agriculture, wastewater, and land use.