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Foxes on the Edge

By John Whiteman · April 28, 2010 · comments 1 comment
DEADHORSE, ALASKA-- Arctic fox seem to make their living by following bears around and scavenging. We have seen foxes trailing behind bears as they travel, and their tracks often wind around bear prints... {Read More »}


Some Time to Think

By John Whiteman · April 22, 2010 · comments No comments yet
DEADHORSE, ALASKA-- One of the reasons the polar bear diet is interesting is that it is fairly simple in comparison to the closely-related brown bear (grizzly bear). Polar bears mainly eat seals, and this is reflected in their dentition... {Read More »}


Back in the Air

By John Whiteman · April 19, 2010 · comments 1 comment
KAKTOVIK, ALASKA-- The captures have been going well. We caught the largest bear I have seen, an adult male who weighed 1,147 lbs. His neck was several times the size of my waist, and I could not fit both hands around his snout... {Read More »}


Organization, Organization, Organization

By John Whiteman · September 27, 2009 · comments No comments yet
BARROW, ALASKA-- It is 1am mountain time, which my body still seems to be on, but about 11pm here in Barrow. I arrived... {Read More »}


Hot Days in the Arctic

By John Whiteman · August 7, 2009 · comments No comments yet
OLIKTOK POINT, ALASKA-- Last week I made the trip back up to the Arctic coast. Along with two other students from the University of Wyoming who are helping with captures and sample processing, I flew from Denver to Anchorage on Thursday night, then onto Deadhorse... {Read More »}


How Fat Is a Polar Bear?

By John Whiteman · May 15, 2009 · comments No comments yet
DEADHORSE, ALASKA-- In the last dispatch, I wrote of polar bears getting by without food. In that situation – no food – the bears must be using body stores of fat for energy. Some bears can carry almost 50% of their body mass as fat... {Read More »}


On the Edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

By John Whiteman · April 23, 2009 · comments 3 comments
KAKTOVIK, ALASKA-- The size of polar bears always amazes me. This bear had paws that were as wide as my hand is long, and it was not even a large male. The largest males can weigh over 1500 lbs, twice as much as this bear... {Read More »}


Racing to Prepare

By John Whiteman · April 17, 2009 · comments 1 comment
DEADHORSE, ALASKA-- Deadhorse is surprisingly accessible, but it is definitely in a wildly remote place; yesterday I woke to sunny skies and a temperature of -17 degrees (Fahrenheit). Spring warmth is coming – three weeks ago it was 30 below – but it is still winter here in the Arctic... {Read More »}


The Bears of Summer

Summer is a critical time for polar bears and climate change is lengthening Arctic summers. {Read More »}


Starting at the End of the Road

By John Whiteman · April 16, 2009 · comments 2 comments
DEADHORSE, ALASKA-- When I began thinking about logistics for this project, one of the first questions I had was “How do you get to the Arctic?” I had done field work in wildnerness areas before, but nothing as remote as northern Alaska. For our first season on capturing polar bears... {Read More »}

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