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Pages and Posts Tagged ‘Arctic’


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 »}


From the Andes to the Arctic

By John Whiteman · April 7, 2010 · comments No comments yet
LARAMIE, WYOMING-- It may seem odd to jump from polar bears in the Arctic to grazing animals high in the Andes mountains, but animals face similar challenges in both places... {Read More »}


You Can’t Control the Weather

By John Whiteman · November 1, 2009 · comments 3 comments
BARROW, ALASKA-- One afternoon a young adult female polar bear wandered by the ship. She appeared out of the blowing snow and walked past the stern, fairly close to the ship. An hour later she reappeared and approached the ship... {Read More »}


Life on the Ship

By John Whiteman · October 21, 2009 · comments 5 comments
ABOARD THE USCGC POLAR SEA, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA-- For captures, we need calm winds, good visibility, thick continuous ice, and a good bear location. Those factors came together to allow us to recapture an adult female... {Read More »}


The Melting Arctic Ice

By John Whiteman · July 7, 2009 · comments 2 comments
LARAMIE, WYOMING-- While I am spending the summer back at the University of Wyoming, the Arctic summer is in full swing. Sea ice breakup has accelerated, and Arctic ice extent declined rapidly throughout June... {Read More »}


The Bears of Summer

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


Pairing Scientific and Traditional Knowledge

Scientists have access to powerful instruments such as satellite technology that provides aerial views of the Arctic. Indigenous people have daily hands-on experience in the Arctic, and tap into traditional knowledge, passed down for centuries. {Read More »}


Polar Geography

Literally on opposite ends of the earth, the Arctic and Antarctica are vast, icy, and cold, but beyond that they’re very different. Antarctica, in the south, is a continent surrounded by ocean; the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents. {Read More »}

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