The end of the Canadian Arctic summer marks the annual migration of polar bears heading inland to wait for the ice to form. Thousands of tourists flock to catch a glimpse of these magnificent predators during this period, which creates an inevitable conflict between humans and the bears. Researchers are developing novel ways to keep people and bears safely separated.
New tracking devices that are clamped to the polar bears’ fur could be the key to protecting both people and bears; these devices closely monitor the animals’ locations.
Polar bears now spend more of the year on land, as Arctic Sea ice melts. So, conservationists are increasingly concerned about bears and people coming into contact. The new tracking tags, which have been tested on bears in the Canadian Arctic, could help prevent those encounters, by “keeping a remote eye” on the bears – the fur tags relay a bear’s position, and allow scientists to also study their behaviour.
In southern Canadian Arctic communities, where the scientists tested these tags, polar bears that wander too close to a human environment are sometimes caught, transported and released in carefully selected sites away from towns and villages. “These tags could be fitted to those bears to monitor where they are, after they’ve been released,” explained Mr. Tyler Ross, the lead researcher from York University in Toronto. “If they’re coming back towards the community, conservation staff could head them off. I think that’s where the new tags offer considerable promise.”
Ross, who studies polar bear ecology, says the tags could also fill important gaps in knowledge about the bears. As the Arctic climate warms up rapidly, the need to monitor bears becomes increasingly urgent. “There’s a dearth of information about male polar bear movements, because they can’t be equipped with conventional tracking collars,” said Mr. Ross.
“The sea ice that the polar bears use as a platform from which to hunt is disappearing faster than it has in the past,” explained Mr Ross, “so the winter hunting season is getting shorter. We want to know where they’re going in response. Male bears’ heads are smaller than their necks, so tracking collars can just slip off. Another option is ear tags – attached by piercing the bear’s ear. They require an animal to be recaptured in order to remove the tag and, in rare cases, can injure the ear.”
Three new tags were designed by the 3M Company in collaboration with the charity Polar Bears International. They all attach to the bears’ coarse fur. To fit the tags, scientists had to locate and sedate bears. Once fitted, the researchers then assessed the quality of the data they received from each device, and noted when the tags fell off.
The best performing device was called a SeaTrkr tag, which can be “crimped” into the bears’ fur. It stayed attached for an average of 58 days and – with an in-built GPS system – allowed the scientists to pinpoint the bears’ location to within just a few metres, as well as to pick up the tracker when it fell off.
“It’s ideal to have something that falls off naturally – that’s not permanently attached to the bear,” explained Mr. Ross, “but anything that lasts in the order of a few months would be great for our research.”
Climate change is bringing bears and humans into closer proximity, making places where polar bears and people coexist, riskier for both. One U.S. Geological Survey study, in 2022, that used data from satellite tracking collars on more than 400 polar bears in Alaska, shows the time they spend onshore has grown significantly in recent decades.
“Getting a better sense of polar bears’ movements is really crucial,” Mr. Ross commented, “particularly given the state of their environment at this point.”
This study of the bear tags is published in the journal Animal Biotelemetry.
An interesting story.
