Tag: Polar Bears

Paul Souders wanted see and photograph polar bears for himself, by himself, in a new way, and he did something to accomplish that no one else would have thought of. He put a 22-foot boat on a trailer and drove to the Arctic, voyaging north, through Hudson Bay, to the pack ice. The photographs he came back with are stunning, showing bears in a way I’ve never seen them. Thanks for listening!

With sea ice in the Arctic melting, polar bears are in peril. Researchers have monitored the threatened species for decades, but tracking bears in remote and harsh climates can be costly and dangerous. Which is why federal scientists have started using a new tool to study the animal: satellites.

Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey are using new video collars to get a glimpse into the daily life of polar bears. Researchers have been using radio and GPS collars since the 1980s to track polar bears' movements along the Arctic sea ice. But, that data lacks a lot of contextual and observational information that allows for a better understanding of the bears. Download Audio

Polar bear biologist Steve Amstrup is the winner of a prestigious conservation award called the Indianapolis Prize. Amstrup's work was instrumental in convincing the federal government to list the polar bear as a threatened species in 2008. He retired from the United States Geological Survey in 2010 to focus his efforts on saving the species from extinction.

Biologists have found Polar Bears in the Beaufort Sea with hair loss and skin lesions. Those are the same symptoms that have sickened ice...