A Day in the Life Of a Field Biologist
Biologist Mike Lockhart, left, with the first polar bear of the season. Capture efforts provide scientists with critical information on how the bears are faring in a warming Arctic. Great care is taken to ensure each animal's safe handling and welfare. Photo © Mike Lockhart. Click the image to enlarge.
Editor's Note: Have you ever wondered what it's like to work with polar bears in the Arctic? The following report by biologist Mike Lockhart offers a window into the daily routines—and challenges—of a PBI field researcher working in one of the harshest environments on Earth.
Halfway into the season, our daily routine starts with a moderate level of exhaustion and a glassy-eyed check of the weather outdoors. Around or before breakfast, biologists, the pilot, and the mechanic further scrutinize weather conditions and forecast to ensure that wind, temperature, and visibility are adequate to undertake a capture mission. We also discuss the area to be covered and the specific objectives for the day. (In addition to the need to capture and mark as many bears as possible, we often go out to find and recover shed radio collars or target specific radioed bears to remove old collars.)
Polar bear capture work can occur on shorelines or on near-shore ice. However, most bears are captured well out to sea on the frozen pack ice, in some cases 80 to 100 miles out! The capture crew typically consists of the pilot in the right front seat, a biologist/darter who sits immediately behind the pilot, and a biologist/data recorder/observer, who is stationed in the front left seat.
Halfway into the season, our daily routine starts with a moderate level of exhaustion and a glassy-eyed check of the weather outdoors. Around or before breakfast, biologists, the pilot, and the mechanic further scrutinize weather conditions and forecast to ensure that wind, temperature, and visibility are adequate to undertake a capture mission. We also discuss the area to be covered and the specific objectives for the day. (In addition to the need to capture and mark as many bears as possible, we often go out to find and recover shed radio collars or target specific radioed bears to remove old collars.)
Polar bear capture work can occur on shorelines or on near-shore ice. However, most bears are captured well out to sea on the frozen pack ice, in some cases 80 to 100 miles out! The capture crew typically consists of the pilot in the right front seat, a biologist/darter who sits immediately behind the pilot, and a biologist/data recorder/observer, who is stationed in the front left seat.