Polar bear rese­arch: field sea­son 2010

Every year, field bio­lo­gists from the Nor­we­gi­an Polar Insti­tu­te work on Polar bears in Spits­ber­gen by anesthe­ti­zing them from heli­co­p­ters. Then, the bears are mea­su­red, sam­ples are taken and in some cases a sen­der is atta­ched to the bear to fol­low their migra­ti­ons. Due to adver­se wea­ther con­di­ti­ons, the 2010 sea­son was less suc­cess­ful than usu­al: only 53 bears were caught, inclu­ding 25 adults, the remai­ning youn­ger ones. 70 % of the­se 53 had been caught befo­re.

This kind of work, that often invol­ves fol­lowing fle­eing bears for some distance with heli­co­p­ters, is con­tro­ver­si­al, but data regar­ding popu­la­ti­on, migra­ti­on and con­cen­tra­ti­ons of envi­ron­men­tal toxins would be dif­fi­cult to aqui­re other­wi­se.

Sources: Sval­bard­pos­ten, Nor­we­gi­sches Polar­in­sti­tut.