Photo: Daniel J. Cox
Frequently Asked Questions
Here, you’ll find the answers to frequently asked questions about polar bears, sea ice, climate warming, and more.
Sea ice is as important to the Arctic as soil is to the forest. When ocean water gets cold enough to freeze it expels its salt, causing channels to form in the ice. Algae grow within these channels and form the base of the food chain. Algae feed the tiny organisms, like zooplankton, that inhabit these waters. Arctic cod feed on them. Seals eat Arctic cod. And polar bears prey on seals.
Polar bears rely on sea ice to efficiently catch their main prey, ice seals. Although seals can out-swim polar bears underwater, bears have the edge on top of the ice—using it to sneak up on and stalk their next meal. Ice seals, and related ice-dependent species like the walrus, rely on sea ice for survival, too. They use it to rest on and as a platform for giving birth to and raising their pups.
Arctic sea ice is important to people living in the North, providing a platform for transportation and increased access to food. But people around the world need sea ice too. Sea ice acts like a global air conditioner, helping to cool the planet by reflecting the sun's light and heat back into space—rather than absorbing it into the water.
Some sea ice still remains in the Arctic year-round, with the lowest extent occurring each summer in September. Despite year-to-year variation, satellite data shows that the rate of sea ice decline for September sea ice is 82,300 square kilometers (32,000 square miles) per year, or 12.8 percent per decade compared to the 1981 to 2010 average. That’s like losing an area the size of South Carolina or New Brunswick every year.
Arctic sea ice is declining in both extent and thickness due to human-caused climate warming. When we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, we release carbon emissions into our atmosphere. These emissions act like a heat-trapping blanket: too many emissions trap too much heat around our planet. Just as a warm summer's day melts the ice in a glass of water, a warming planet causes Arctic sea ice to melt.
Yes! Less sea ice = extra heat absorbed into the ocean = less heat reflected away from Earth = disrupted climates. Just as a heart circulates blood and regulates the body’s temperature, the ocean controls the world’s climate system by circulating heat, moisture, and nutrients around the planet. Disruptions in this system, such as extra heat, have global impacts and can lead to more frequent and extreme weather events around the world— impacting agriculture, infrastructure, economics, and human lives.
Despite the threats, it’s important to remember that it's not too late to save Arctic sea ice. Studies show there is no tipping point. The ice will rebound if we work together now to shift away from fossil fuels, replacing them with renewable energy sources like solar and wind. Not only will this help reduce the carbon emissions that are causing the planet to warm and the sea ice to melt, it will also create jobs, strengthen the economy, and improve the overall environment and our health.
The Polar Bear Tracker follows the movements of satellite-collared polar bears in Hudson Bay, Canada. The tracking is part of a long-term research project conducted by our partners at the University of Alberta and Environment and Climate Change Canada.
If you don’t see recent updates, don’t worry! The tracking device may be experiencing technical difficulties due to the harsh Arctic habitat and is offline for now. This is normal and the bear may come back online soon.
The GPS collars allow researchers to track polar bears, helping us learn about their movements in response to sea ice loss caused by climate change. Because polar bears prefer to roam far out on sea ice, where it is dangerous for humans to travel, data from satellite collars gives scientists a rare glimpse into the lives of polar bears, including the habitats they use and the vast distances they travel.
The GPS collar transmits location data to a satellite, from which researchers can then download movement information. The collar’s battery life depends on how often it shares data. To prolong the battery life, the collar typically sends data to the satellite every four hours.
Collars are built with flexible, synthetic material that sheds water and ice and stays flexible in cold temperatures but is strong enough to withstand Arctic marine conditions for at least one year.
Adult males can’t be collared because their necks are as wide as their heads, so the collars slip right off! And juvenile bears grow too quickly to fit with a collar.
We use the term “real-time tracking” because the collar transmits location data to the collection site several times a day. However, we receive the information weekly and deliberately delay publishing the data. We publish 1-3 new locations roughly once a week as available, usually from October to July.
It is difficult to make technology reliable in the Arctic. The Arctic’s harsh and remote environment makes tracking polar bears challenging and costly. The cold weather, freezing salty waters, and bears who like to rub on the sea ice take a toll on the collars. Sometimes collars stop transmitting for a few months or sometimes they power down entirely until they fall off.
Each collar is programmed to last 1-2 years, then automatically fall off using a timer. Some bears have been collared more than once throughout their lives (contributing extremely important data to our understanding of polar bears), but not for longer than two years at one time.
These days, most collars are programmed to last one year or less. If a collar lasts a full 12 months on a polar bear, researchers are pretty happy.
The collars have a release mechanism with an internal clock that researchers can program. Researchers usually set the timer so that the collar will fall off shortly before the batteries are drained, and the collar is no longer transmitting.
Also, the collars are attached with steel nuts and brass bolts that eventually corrode in a saltwater environment, causing the collar to fall off even if the release mechanism fails. Once they fall off, a GPS location allows researchers to find the collar (if in a retrievable spot), download any stored data, refurbish, and send it out again to save money.
The number of collared bears varies according to project goals, the region, how well-funded a project is in a given year, and how successful researchers are in catching adult females. Usually, 5-10 bears are collared in western Hudson Bay each fall.
Right now, collars can provide the longest and most robust datasets for polar bear movements on sea ice. GPS-linked ear tags have been deployed on male polar bears in recent years with some success, but they rarely last longer than 5 or 6 months. We are currently developing and testing new methods of tracking polar bears that can both withstand Arctic conditions and allow scientists to track adult males and juvenile bears, providing critical data on these two key groups. Check out our Burr on Fur project!
Yes! We encourage teachers and students to make use of the Bear Tracker when possible. Our lessons and materials, along with our Tundra Connections webcasts, make for a wonderful way to learn about polar bears in the classroom.
Unfortunately, we are not able to share the actual coordinates of the bears, as the GPS data do not belong to us. Also, the data are currently being used for research projects that have not yet been published, and so are not available to the public at this time.
For publicly available polar bear data, please check out the USGS Polar Bear Research page.
Want to Dive Deeper?
Explore more in-depth answers from our scientists in Ask the Experts.
Photo: Kt Miller / Polar Bears International
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Donations, Sponsorships, and Other Fundraising Questions
We are so inspired by people who support our efforts through special fundraising events. Your hard work helps motivate others to get involved in actions to preserve polar bears and their future.
If you are interested in supporting Polar Bears International through a limited fundraiser (examples include, but are not limited to, birthdays, bake sales, fun-runs, school fundraisers, art fundraisers, polar bear plunges, etc.) you are welcome to mention that Polar Bears International will be the recipient of a donation with the following disclaimer: [NAME] is not affiliated in any manner with Polar Bears International or any of its programs, projects or websites.”
You are welcome to reference our website in directing people to a source of additional information; we would recommend the following language: "For more information about polar bear conservation, please go to www.polarbearsinternational.org and find out how to get involved."
We also invite people interested in starting a fundraiser to check out the Start A Fundraiser page on our website. You can set up your own fundraising page using our peer-to-peer fundraising platform, and invite your friends and family to support your challenge. Alternatively, you can set up a fundraiser on Facebook or Instagram and name Polar Bears International as the benefactor.
We request that you contact one of our development professionals prior to launching any event so we can advise you on some ideas for conducting a successful fundraiser. You can reach our team at members@pbears.org.
You can read our full fundraiser disclaimer here.
Polar Bears International is happy to accept donations through our online donation form, but we understand that not everyone is comfortable sharing important financial information online. Therefore we want to provide alternative methods for supporting our work.
For those who would like to give a gift to polar bears offline, we have created a downloadable remit form you can fill out and send in with your mailed donation. A tax receipt for your gift will be sent out as soon as it is processed. If you have made a donation through the mail and did not receive a tax receipt within 3 weeks of mailing, please contact us at fundraising@pbears.org.
For gifts made in U.S. dollars, please send your donation to:
Polar Bears International, P.O. 3008, Bozeman, MT 59772
For gifts made in Canadian dollars, please send your donation to:
Polar Bears International - Canada, PO Box 4052, 1155 Main Street Station B, Winnipeg, MB R2W 5K8
For international donations, alternatively, we accept wire transfers. To learn more about wire transfers, email fundraising@pbears.org. Please note, only donations made by eligible U.S. and Canadian taxpayers may be tax-deductible.
For more information about how your donation impacts polar bear conservation, you can visit our website to review our financial documents, including annual reports and audited financial reports. Also visit our impact page to see how your support makes a difference.
Polar Bears International maintains the highest rating from Charity Navigator and Guidestar and we’re dedicated to ensuring fiscal responsibility and transparency.We carefully shepherd all donations to support our conservation efforts.
At Polar Bears International, 80% of all the money raised goes directly toward our program work, which includes scientific research, coexistence efforts, education, and advocacy. To learn more about our various conservation and research projects as well as our extensive outreach and education projects please visit our website.
You can also visit our Latest Stories page to find articles that highlight some of our accomplishments.
Polar Bears International is a registered charity in the United States (Charitable ID 77-0322706), and Canada (Charitable Registration No. 862722279 RR0001). If you are a U.S. or Canadian donor, we can provide a tax receipt for your contribution to polar bears.
It is very important to our team that you receive an acknowledgement from us as soon as your gift is processed. If you donated to Polar Bears International through our online portal, a donation receipt will be automatically delivered to your email address immediately after your contribution is received. However, receipts can occasionally be marked as spam. If you didn’t receive your tax receipt, we suggest checking your spam or junk mail folders to make sure this hasn’t happened. If you have checked your spam folder and still haven’t received your receipt, please contact us at fundraising@pbears.org and we will issue a new receipt.
If you have donated through the mail, please allow two weeks from the time of your gift to receive your tax receipt. If you mailed a gift to one of our offices and haven't received your receipt in a timely manner, please contact us at fundraising@pbears.org. We can confirm if your gift was received, and issue a new receipt for your records.
Polar Bears International now accepts cryptocurrency donations through The Giving Block in the U.S. and Canada. The Giving Block purchases 2x carbon offsets everytime you donate crypto. To learn more about how to donate cryptocurrency, please visit our webpage:
Donate Cryptocurrency and Stock - U.S.A
Donate Cryptocurrency - Canada
At Polar Bears International, we appreciate all businesses that are interested in supporting conservation. By partnering with the business sector, we can reach new audiences to help build awareness about polar bears and the challenges they face. Polar Bears International seeks partnerships with businesses that apply principles of environmental welfare to the production of their own products, processes, and services, and by association, polar bears.
We are looking for leaders and key influencers of corporate responsibility in their respective markets that can allow us to further our mission to conserve polar bears and a healthy climate future for us all. To be considered for a corporate sponsorship, you can apply by sending in a short application that provides us with information about your business and your interest in joining our mission.
Sponsorship levels begin at $35,000 and we restrict the use of the Polar Bears International logo for higher-level sponsorships. We also offer a Friends of the Bear corporate donor level for companies interested in donating between $15,000-$35,000. For more information, please contact members@pbears.org
You can also review the Fundraiser Disclaimer to learn more guidelines to raise funds to support polar bear conservation.
Thank you for being a special member of our Polar Bear Patron Community. As a monthly donor, you are part of a valued group of supporters who make our work possible 365 days a year. Your ongoing commitment ensures that we keep the needs of polar bears and the people who live with them, front and center all year long.
We want to make it easy for you to manage your monthly gift with us. If you need to make any changes to the timing and/or amount of your contribution or change your credit card information, please contact us at fundraising@pbears.org. You can also contact us by phone, 406-586-9416, Monday-Friday, between 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT. Our fundraising team will be happy to help update your information.
Thank you for your continued support and for being a Polar Bear Patron!
Bear Tracker
Polar Bears International’s Bear Tracker program is an ongoing research project conducted by the University of Alberta and Environment and Climate Change Canada. This project is designed to learn more about polar bear movements in Hudson Bay related to changes in the sea ice. Data is collected from female polar bears fitted with GPS collars. They transmit location information to satellites, which is then downloaded by scientists to study. The data can tell researchers where bears travel throughout the year, how far they go, if they spend time near human settlements, and how long they are off the sea ice. This data can also be viewed over time to uncover important patterns, such as when bears leave the ice and where they spend most of their time.
The process involved in collaring and tracking bears is extremely difficult, dangerous and expensive. Therefore, participation in the Bear Tracker program is limited to our aquariums and zoo partners, as well as corporate sponsors who use this information to bring awareness to their vast audiences.
The Bear Tracker program is significantly different from our symbolic adoption program. Through our symbolic adoption program, supporters can purchase kits or eco-adoptions that help support our conservation mission. Adoptions are not linked with the live bears listed on our bear tracker map.
Wildlife Tracking Bracelets through Fahlo
In 2020, Polar Bears International welcomed a corporate sponsor, Fahlo (formerly known as Wildlife Collection). Fahlo offers customers the opportunity to purchase bracelets which follow the movements of select wildlife species on a tracking app. Ten percent of sales from their Save the Bear campaign supports the conservation efforts of Polar Bears International.
While Fahlo offers the opportunity to track polar bears through their app, their program is independent from Polar Bears International’s Bear Tracker. Polar Bears International is not involved in the delivery of wildlife tracking bracelets and does not maintain the tracking pages for our partners at Fahlo.