Polar Bears count on WildTrack
How do you count the world’s most elusive and endangered species? Two UK nationals, Drs. Sky Alibhai and Zoe Jewell, developed the footprint identification technique (FIT) as a low-cost and non-invasive way to monitor and census such species. The husband-and-wife team’s home base is Portugal; their independent research organization is WildTrack; and the software at the heart of FIT is JMP.
FIT uses JMP data visualization software to identify individual animals as well as determine population numbers in a particular area. Proven in the field on black and white rhino, tapirs and other animals, FIT is about to be adapted for an animal that lives on ice and snow: polar bears.
Video
With the help of JMP software, WildTrack scientists have developed a footprint identification technique that creates a geometric profile of a polar bear's foot.
Overview Video (4:29)
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Provisionally listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and classified as a species of special concern in Canada, Polar Bears already face a questionable future. Add in climate change research that suggests the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, and that future becomes even more questionable. Without ice, bears can not hunt for seals and must swim huge distances to find hunting grounds. Already, the total Arctic ice cover has melted back to the lowest level in modern records. If melting continues at this pace, scientists estimate that the summertime Arctic will be ice-free within 80 years.
It is thought that more than 60 percent of the world’s estimated 22,000 to 25,000 polar bears live in Canada. Although debate persists over the true population size, the need for regular and accurate monitoring is agreed upon. Without that, the effects of global warming on the species can not be measured, nor can hunting quotas be reconsidered.
With Peter van Coeverden De Groot of Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada, and the Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO) of Gjoa Haven, the WildTrack researchers began the task of censusing and monitoring polar bears on the sea ice around northern King William Island and portions of King William Island.
This project affords WildTrack’s Alibhai and Jewell a rare opportunity to compare the efficacy of FIT with two other non-invasive monitoring techniques being used at the same time: genetic identification through hair snags and traditional identification of bear tracks by Inuit experts.
An equally important goal: training local Inuit hunters and youth in the use of FIT to provide them with a scientifically robust tool based on traditional tacking skills. After all, they will provide future stewardship and management of polar bears in this part of the world.
Learn more about FIT and WildTrack’s work with tigers: www.jmp.com/mag/wild
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This story appeared in the sascom Magazine Special Supplement on JMP. Register to download a PDF of the entire 44-page supplement.
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