Studying polar bears is a difficult feat, with current radio collars only suitable to be used on female bears, leaving out a swath of the population.
However, new technology is providing researchers with a new tool which has confirmed the behaviour of adult male polar bears while on land, waiting for the ice to form again.
Efforts to develop less-invasive tracking options and tools that could work on polar bears of both sexes and nearly all ages have been ongoing for years with varying success. Collars have been and remain the primary means of studying polar bear movements.
More recently, ear tag transmitters have been used as a lighter-weight alternative. While both technologies serve an important role in helping study and conserve polar bears, researchers continually strive to develop methods that are both minimally invasive and provide quality data.
This led to a new tracking initiative known as 'Burr on Fur', which began as a challenge from Polar Bears International to 3M scientists, the global science and manufacturing company behind Post-It notes, to create a temporary, simple method for affixing small tracking units to polar bear fur.
Three ‘Burr on Fur’ prototypes were recently tested on wild polar bears along the coast of Hudson Bay, Canada, alongside traditional ear tag transmitters.
The shortcomings with traditional tracking methods: the ear tag and ‘Burr on Fur’ devices fill an important niche for scientists and wildlife managers.
The new tags allow researchers to follow the movements of adult male and subadult polar bears, two groups that can’t be studied using traditional satellite collars.
Adult males can’t wear collars because they slip off their cone-shaped necks and heads, and subadult bears grow too rapidly for safe collar use. Traditional ear tags are an alternative to collars.
However, they currently require recapture to remove and, although rare, can pose a risk of injury to the ear. The new Burr on Fur tags are designed to be temporary, minimally invasive, and can be applied to both sexes and nearly all ages of polar bears.
“Successfully attaching telemetry tags to polar bear fur has never been done before, and we’re excited to share the results of this innovative work,” said Tyler Ross, lead author of the paper and researcher at York University.
“The fur tags showed great promise, and give researchers the ability to study the behaviours and movements of polar bears that we have very little data on, like subadult and adult male bears.”
“The collaboration between Polar Bears International, 3M, academic institutions, and governmental partners is a testament to our commitment to improving Arctic wildlife research and conservation technology,” added Geoff York, Senior Director of Research and Policy at Polar Bears International.
“These advancements will have tangible implications for wildlife management, aiding in tracking polar bears and promoting improved human-bear coexistence,” York added.
“We’re eager to further refine and deploy this pivotal technology.”