Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Maternal Den Study
by Daniel J. Cox
© Daniel J. Cox / Natural Exposures, Inc. Click the image to enlarge.
Editor's Note: National Geographic photographer Daniel J. Cox took part in a Maternal Den Mapping Project in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) this summer, working alongside George Durner of the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center. Funded by PBI, the study's aim was to map potential polar bear denning sites so they can be protected from industrial development.
I’ve been infatuated with the wilds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for many, many years, drawn in by pictures from some of Alaska’s finest natural history photographers. By my early 20s, I dreamed that I, too, could someday go to the Far North to see the wide open plains and wilderness that the ANWR represents.
My first trip was long in coming, but finally took place in the summer of 2001. It was everything I had dreamed of, a land far wilder than anywhere I had ever been. So vast was the tundra, so wide was the sky that every creature I saw first showed itself as a mere speck on the horizon. Some birds and animals came closer, but many just passed on the winds of the Arctic. My ability to go great distances was extremely limited, for hiking on the undulating sponge of the tundra is an arduous task.
This past summer a second chance to see this magnificent land presented itself in the form of an opportunity to help with field verification of a polar-bear denning habitat map funded by Polar Bears International. I jumped at the chance and was rewarded with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge like only a handful have ever seen it.
I’ve been infatuated with the wilds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for many, many years, drawn in by pictures from some of Alaska’s finest natural history photographers. By my early 20s, I dreamed that I, too, could someday go to the Far North to see the wide open plains and wilderness that the ANWR represents.
My first trip was long in coming, but finally took place in the summer of 2001. It was everything I had dreamed of, a land far wilder than anywhere I had ever been. So vast was the tundra, so wide was the sky that every creature I saw first showed itself as a mere speck on the horizon. Some birds and animals came closer, but many just passed on the winds of the Arctic. My ability to go great distances was extremely limited, for hiking on the undulating sponge of the tundra is an arduous task.
This past summer a second chance to see this magnificent land presented itself in the form of an opportunity to help with field verification of a polar-bear denning habitat map funded by Polar Bears International. I jumped at the chance and was rewarded with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge like only a handful have ever seen it.