Scientists are using novel innovations to study polar bears, which reside in the quickly warming Arctic.
Kieran McIver/ Polar Bears International
The bears spend much of their time on sea ice hunting for seals. An approximated 26,000 polar bears stroll the northern reaches of the world, and conservationists fret they could disappear completely by 2100 due to the fact that of global warming.
Their size, power, intelligence and environmental adaptions have long intrigued human beings living in the north, consisting of many Indigenous communities, such as the Inuit, the Ket and the Sámi. Biologists wonder about Ursus maritimus for much of the very same reasons.
When theyre born, polar bears are toothless and blind, and they weigh roughly a pound. Over time– thanks to lots of fat-rich milk and security from their mother– these helpless cubs grow to end up being big, effective predators that are completely adjusted for their Arctic environment.
” Bears are interesting,” states B.J. Kirschhoffer, director of preservation technology at Polar Bears International. “For me, when basing on a popular point overlooking sea ice, I wish to know how any animal can earn a living because environment. I am curious about everything that makes them able to grow to be the most significant bear by residing in one of the harshest put on this planet. There is still a lot to discover about the species– how they use energy, how they browse their world and how they are reacting to a rapidly changing environment.”
But examining primarily solitary animals who invest much of their time roaming around sea ice, in a few of the most rugged and remote locations on the planet, is pricey, logistically challenging and unsafe to scientists. For aid, scientists are relying on innovation. These five developments are changing the method they study polar bears.
Sticky tracking gadgets
Researchers can twist 3 black bottle brushes into a sedated bears fur to connect a triangular plate geared up with a tracking gadget.
3M
Jon Kirschhoffer spent his nearly 40-year profession at 3M as an industrial designer, developing unique services to complex problems similar to this one. So when B.J. Kirschhoffer, his child, started talking about the requirement for a new, noninvasive way of attaching trackers to polar bears, Jons wheels began turning. He brought the issue to his coworkers, who set to work studying polar bear fur and structure models.
This was the obstacle put to innovators at 3M, the Minnesota-based company that makes everything from medical devices to cleaning up materials to constructing materials. 3M is especially proficient at making things sticky– its flagship products include Post-it Notes and Scotch Tape.
One of the most promising styles draws inspiration from the human process of connecting hair extensions.
Much of what scientists understand about polar bears originates from tracking female members of the types. This is largely due to physiological differences in between the sexes: Males have thick necks and little heads, which indicates tracking collars can easily slip straight off. Females, on the other hand, have larger heads and thinner necks.
Theyre likewise permanent, and polar bear researchers make every effort to make as minimal an effect on the bears as possible. How, then, can researchers connect tracking gadgets to young bears and male polar bears?
3M
” Its like a burr: You twist and entangle the fur in the bottle brush, then flex over the manage so it doesnt untwist,” Jon says. “We do that on 3 sides and put a little protective cap over it so its less likely to get snagged on willows and brush and other things that bears walk through.”
However even if they cant get the sticky gadgets to stay connected to bears for the full 270 days, the devices will still work for collecting some amount of data on males and young bears, which is presently doing not have. Theyre also promising for short-term tracking circumstances, such as “when a bear has gone into a community, been caught and launched, and we wish to monitor the animal to guarantee it does not re-enter the neighborhood,” states B.J.
The other alternative draws motivation from the process hairstylist use to connect hair extensions to their human customers heads. This pentagonal design includes extending a loop of a fishing leader down through five metal ferrules, or tubes; lassoing some hair on a sedated polar bear; and pulling it back through. Researchers can then utilize pliers to squeeze and crimp the hair in location.
They also have the option of applying a two-part epoxy to the bottle brushes to assist hold the bears fur more securely. In tests, the scientists have sedated the animals prior to attaching the trackers, but some zoos are training their bears to accept the tags while fully alert.
Researchers are checking both devices on wild bears in Churchill, Manitoba, and on bears housed at fish tanks and zoos. The decision is still out on which alternative is much better, and Polar Bears International anticipates the testing phase to last a number of more years. Eventually, by making design adjustments based on their experimental learnings, they intend to fine-tune the devices so they will stick to the bears fur for a minimum of 270 days, which is the lifespan of the tracking devices themselves.
” Bear-dar” detection systems
Scientists are testing several radar systems developed to find approaching polar bears.
Erinn Hermsen/ Polar Bears International
To avoid human-bear encounters, scientists are developing early-warning radar detection systems theyve nicknamed “bear-dar” to assist alert northern neighborhoods when a bear is getting close. A handful of appealing models remain in the works: Some teams of researchers are building the systems from scratch, while others are riffing off innovations that are currently in usage by the armed force. They all utilize expert system models that might be able to discern approaching bears. Scientists have evaluated the systems in Churchill, Manitoba, and are now tweaking the A.I. designs to be more accurate.
” Weve currently established that the radar sees everything,” B.J. Kirschhoffer says in a declaration. “Being able to see is not the problem. Straining the noise is the issue. … Ideally, we can train them to recognize polar bears with a high degree of certainty.”
As the systems are still in testing, they do not alert members of the neighborhood or expert responders. However, ultimately, communities may establish custom-made responses depending upon the informs, states Kirschhoffer.
When humans and polar bears satisfy, the encounters can frequently end in tragedy– for either the bear, the human or both. Dispute doesnt take place typically, but global warming is complicating the concern. The bears are fasting longer due to the fact that environment change is causing sea ice to form later on in the fall and melt earlier in the spring. And, with nowhere else to go, theyre likewise investing more time on land in the Arctic, where an estimated four million people live. Some are even looking for simple calories from trash dumps or stacks of butchered whale stays.
Scientists counted 73 reports of wild polar bears assaulting humans all over the world between 1870 to 2014, which resulted in 20 human deaths and 63 human injuries. (They didnt include bear results in the research study.) After evaluating the encounters, scientists determined that slim or thin adult male bears in below-average body condition positioned the best risks to human beings. Female bears, meanwhile, hardly ever attacked and generally just did so while protecting their cubs.
” For instance, if a bear-like target is determined 200 meters out, send a text,” he says. “If a bear-like target is determined 50 meters out, blink a red light and sound a siren.”
Artificial aperture radar
Discovering polar bear dens on the snowy, white, blustery tundra is a lot like finding a needle in a haystack. Historically, researchers have utilized low-tech techniques to discover dens, such as heading out on cross-country skis with a set of binoculars or using pets to sniff them out. For the last few years, scientists have been utilizing an innovation understood as forward-looking infrared imagery, or FLIR, which includes using heat-sensing cams connected to an airplane to spot the warm bodies of bears under the snow.
Researchers are highly interested in polar bear dens– that is, the comfortable nooks female bears dig under the snow to provide birth to cubs– for several reasons. Studying bears at den sites enables scientists to collect essential behavioral and population insights, such as the body condition of cubs and mothers or how long they spend inside the den before emerging.
When used to aerial picture surveys, A.I. can assist scientists get an accurate headcount of polar bears.
” You can imagine, with enormous computing power, it goes through and says, These items were not in this image before,” states Smith.
An appealing new technology is on the horizon: synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Affixed to an airplane, SAR is a sophisticated remote-sensing innovation that sends out electromagnetic waves, then tapes the recuperate, to produce a radar picture of the landscape below. SAR is not constrained by the very same weather-related concerns as FLIR, and it can capture a substantial swath of land, up to half a mile wide, at a time, according to Smith.
Scientists also would like to know where dens are located since oil and gas companies can unintentionally interrupt the dens– and, thus, potentially harm the bears– when they search for brand-new sources of nonrenewable fuel sources. They can inform energy business to guide clear if researchers and land managers understand where polar bear dens are situated.
Expert system
Researchers are still evaluating SAR, but, in theory, they hope to utilize it to produce a standard map of a location throughout the summer season or early fall, then do another flyover throughout denning season. They can then compare the 2 images to see whats altered.
Kieran McIver/ Polar Bears International
To that same end, scientists are likewise now checking whether drones work to capture high-resolution images and gather other appropriate data. Given that they dont need onboard human pilots, drones are a much safer, more economical alternative to helicopters; theyre likewise smaller sized and nimbler, and tend to be less disruptive to wildlife.
Getting an accurate headcount of polar bears over time offers scientists valuable insights into the species wellness in the middle of ecological changes stimulated by environment change. Polar bears wander far and wide, traveling throughout substantial expanses of sea ice and rugged, hard-to-reach terrain in really cold environments, which makes it difficult, as well as costly and possibly hazardous, for scientists to try to count them in the field.
A.I. might eventually help them count the animals. Researchers are now training A.I. designs to quickly and precisely recognize polar bears, along with other species of marine mammals, in photos caught from above. For scientists who perform aerial surveys, which produce numerous thousands of images that scientists sort through, this new technology is a game-changer.
” If youre investing 8 hours a day browsing images, the quantity of attention that a human brain is going to pay to those images is going to change, whereas when you have a computer do something … its going to do that regularly,” Erin Moreland, a research zoologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Alaska Public Medias Casey Grove in 2020. “People are proficient at this, but theyre not as excellent at it as a device, and its not always the very best usage of a human mind.”
Treadmill and swim chamber
Together, the two innovations helped researchers find out that bears expend more energy swimming than strolling. Polar bears are good swimmers, however theyre not very effective ones, thanks to their relatively brief arms, their non-aerodynamic body shape and their tendency for swimming at the waters surface, where drag is greatest. In a world with diminishing sea ice, polar bears likely requirement to swim more to discover food and, thus, will burn precious calories, which could trigger them to slim down and lower their chances of recreating– reducing the types chances of survival.
As a follow-up to the walking study, Pagano and biologists at the Oregon Zoo also determined the energy output of the bears while swimming. To do so, they established a polar bear-sized swim chamber, total with a little motor that generated waves to mimic the conditions the bears may experience in the ocean.
Researchers desire to understand just how much polar bears exert themselves while walking across the tundra or swimming through the Arctic Ocean. To get a deal with on the marine mammals energy output on land, Anthony Pagano, a biologist with the United States Geological Survey, constructed a special durable polar bear treadmill. Study partners at the San Diego Zoo and the Oregon Zoo then trained captive polar bears to walk on it. Utilizing shatterproof plastic and strengthened steel, the group built a 10-foot-long chamber that framed a treadmill usually used by horses. The 4,400-pound contraption also consisted of a circular opening where researchers could lure the bears into walking with fish and other yummy treats.
Arctic
Bears
When people and polar bears meet, the encounters can often end in catastrophe– for either the bear, the human or both. Scientists are extremely interested in polar bear dens– that is, the comfortable nooks female bears dig under the snow to offer birth to cubs– for several reasons.
Innovations
Technology
” We need to understand more about how the Arctic environment is altering and how polar bears are reacting to loss of environment if we are going to keep them in the wild,” says B.J. Kirschhoffer. “Ultimately, our fate is connected to the polar bears. Whatever actions we require to assist polar bears keep their sea ice habitat intact are actions that will help human beings secure our own future.”
Recommended Videos
When theyre born, polar bears are toothless and blind, and they weigh approximately a pound. Theyre likewise long-term, and polar bear researchers strive to make as very little an impact on the bears as possible. How, then, can scientists attach tracking devices to young bears and male polar bears?
Endangered Species
Animals
Together, these and other technologies are assisting researchers learn how polar bears are faring as the climate develops. This understanding, in turn, notifies conservation choices to assist safeguard the bears and their environment– and the health of the world more broadly.