The Diary of a Polar Bear Researcher

Being a polar bear scientist

One of the great things about being a polar bear scientist is that you can only work on sunny days. The temperatures that slip down to -30°C are a bit less wonderful, but the scenery makes up for it.

We can only find tracks when the sun is out: cloudy days with flat light make tracking impossible. Polar bears are spread out across vast areas of ice, so it’s common to be tracking a bear for over an hour before we catch up with the track-maker.

That’s why helicopters are another essential tool for our research. To get our work done we also need good ice conditions that provide a place to land and luck to ensure we don’t lose the bear tracks before we run out of helicopter fuel…it’s also helpful to have a stomach immune to airsickness. Twisting and turning over the tracks of a hunting bear can nauseate even the toughest researcher!

Catching a Polar bear

We have a pretty standard routine for catching a polar bear - load up the helicopter, find a bear, tranquilize the bear with a dart and conduct our research before the bear awakens.

Experience matters and making quick conservative decisions is key: some sea ice and some bears are best left alone. A polar bear capture has to be safe for the bear but also for the research crew. A good pilot makes it a lot easier and most love using their skills to catch polar bears.

Careful placement of the capture dart is a key part of safely capturing a bear. Fortunately, polar bears are incredibly robust but the key to success is to do our research as quickly and as humanely as possible. Most bears burn off their drug induced torpor quickly and we have less than an hour to do our work. The drugs we use are incredibly safe and the bears wake up in a peaceful state given the calming influence of one of the components.

Once a bear is safe to approach, we spring into action. We collect our samples - usually blood, hair, milk, fat core, and a tiny tooth for age determination. After this, it’s a series of standard body measurements. We then attach ear tags and place a tattoo on the upper lip for long-term identification. We then attach an ear tag satellite radio tag. If it’s a full grown female, we’ll attach a satellite collar.

Tracking Polar Bears

Tracking these animals gives us great insight into their lives for many months. We can discover where they go, what habitats they use, and when they migrate for shore. The samples we bring back to the lab provide insights on genetics, pollution, diet, age, stress levels, pregnancy rates, feeding history, disease exposure, and more.

Field research on polar bears is an odd mix between moments of exhilaration and discovery coupled with long periods of waiting for weather. Over the years I’ve worked from cabins, tents, weather stations, research stations, and ice breakers. I’m much fonder of a place with reliable heat, power, and water! 

Understanding how they successfully live in such a harsh environment was an early motivation for my research. It’s a sad statement that I’ve ended up spending far more of my career trying to understand how they’re affected by pollution and monitoring their fate in a rapidly changing Arctic.