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Pages and Posts Tagged ‘Polar Bears’


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 »}


Another Recapture, and Big Seas

By John Whiteman · October 11, 2009 · comments 4 comments
ABOARD THE USCGC POLAR SEA, ON THE CHUKCHI SEA– Over the last week we kept the ship in the same general area, in the northern reaches of the Chukchi Sea. Several days of cooler weather allowed the ice to thicken a little, and we had another successful recapture of an adult female with her cub... {Read More »}


Catching Our First Bears, Based on a Tiny Floating City

By John Whiteman · October 6, 2009 · comments 1 comment
ABOARD THE USCGC POLAR SEA, ON THE ARCTIC OCEAN– We have all adjusted quickly to life on a ship, but every once in a while, it is still quite striking to remember that we are on a very small, floating city, in one of the most remote places on earth... {Read More »}


Searching for Ice in the Arctic

By John Whiteman · October 1, 2009 · comments 1 comment
ABOARD THE USCGC POLAR SEA, ON THE ARCTIC OCEAN-- This morning at breakfast we received word that we were within 20 miles of the last known location of a bear we are targeting for capture. Over the previous 24 hours we had cruised through several hundred miles of open water... {Read More »}


Finally at Sea

By John Whiteman · September 29, 2009 · comments 1 comment
ABOARD THE USCGC POLAR SEA, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA-- After writing the last dispatch, I had a nearly sleepless night in Barrow because I was so worried about all the details involved with getting all the gear and people onto the ship the next day... {Read More »}

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