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How well do polar bears handle the heat?​​ ​​

BREAKING NEWS ON NEW PUBLICATION! How hot is hot to a polar bear?  Click on the button above to learn what our research discovered!

​We know polar bears are at risk from climate change disrupting the sea ice they are dependent on to hunt seals, their main prey.  However we know nearly nothing about how the warmer temperatures affect their bodies or health.  They are supremely adapted for the normal cold Arctic temperatures but how well do they handle the increasing heat in the summer?  This is also a relevant question for polar bears that are housed in zoos, often in much warmer ambient conditions than those normally observed in the Arctic. So we have initiated a study looking at thermoregulation (how an animal keeps its body temperature steady) in polar bears.  We are using non-invasive techniques to assess stress and other physiological variables in polar bears housed in zoos and relating these to ambient conditions year round.  In addition, in mid-summer and mid-winter, we are visiting each bear, feeding it a temperature data logger (iButton®) to measure core body temperature and closely monitoring behaviour and thermoregulation with video and infra-red photography for the 24 hours or so before the bear poops the iButton® out.  This is giving us an unprecedented look at how polar bears handle the heat and what they need to keep cool in an increasingly warm world.