JACKSON — Research conducted in Grand Teton National Park suggests that evocative road signage could help prevent vehicle collisions with bears, though whether the park’s signage will change is unclear.

The project, conducted by researchers from the University of Montana and funded by billionaire Joe Ricketts, found that signs with cartoon bears and language including “Cub crossing ahead” and “When a cub dies our community mourns” decreased the number of people driving 15-plus miles per hour over the speed limit by four to seven drivers per day. People driving that speed are most likely to hit a bear.

Researchers tested signs by placing speed-measuring devices 100 meters after signs to measure the effectiveness of the various signs.

There have been 51 grizzly bears killed by cars in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem since 2009. Two bears — a grizzly and a black bear — were killed in vehicle collisions in Grand Teton National Park last month.

Graduate student Miranda Foster completed the research program with Will Rice, an assistant professor of outdoor recreation and wildland management.

“In a roadside setting, you only have a couple seconds to take in a message, and research shows that visual cues really help that message stick in a short amount of time,” Foster said in a press release.

The research, conducted in the park and on Togwotee Pass, is part of a new wave of research into human-wildlife interactions in the region.

“A lot of the basic wildlife research in the Yellowstone Ecosystem has been done,” said Doug Smith, who is now the chief biologist at Ricketts’ Jackson Fork Ranch. “We know a ton about the animals that live here. The issue now is, how do you protect them?”

Smith worked as a Yellowstone National Park biologist for almost 30 years, beginning in 1994. The park had fewer than 3 million visitors per year at the time. Now, it has closer to 5 million.

“How do you have more people and at the same time protect the values of the ecosystem?” Smith said. “More people can kill more, injure more.”

The project is a step toward better coexistence, Smith said. As the project was underway, highway officials told Smith that signage is incapable of changing motorists’ behavior.

“I didn’t tell that to the researchers,” Smith said. “I kept it to myself, and boom, [the researchers] proved them wrong. The signs were innovative, creative, colorful and had different messaging.”

But the signs’ eye-catching nature might prove to be at odds with Teton Park’s rustic landscape.

“I think it’s going to be hard because the government likes the typical government signs,” Smith said. “If you get fancy, it takes away from the visitor experience.”

The signs almost look like advertisements, in that they’re cartoonish and colorful.

“That doesn’t always align with the naturalness of a national park,” Smith said. “So I think administrators are going to have to think about it.”