Polar Bears

Meet Heather Craig and Dr. Steven Ampstrup, the scientists you heard featured in our Polar Bear podcast. We asked them a few questions about themselves and here is what they had to say about life as a scientist.

Where do you work?

Heather: Fish and Wildlife Service Seasonal Biological Technician. Biology student at Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho,USA

Steve: United States Geological Survey (USGS), Alaska Science Center

What do you study?

Heather: I participated in post-breeding shorebird surveys along the coast of the Beaufort Sea in Alaska.

Steve: Minimizing the impact of the ever enlarging human footprint on the rest of life on earth.  

What are three titles you would give yourself?

Heather: Biology student, adventurer, naturalist

Steve: Ecologist, conservationist, Husband and Father

What do you like to do when you are not working?

Heather: When I am not in school or doing research, I enjoy exploring the outdoors, hiking and boating. I also love reading and spending time with my friends and family.

Steve: I do my own home renovations/improvements, and soon will be building a new home.  My favorite recreational pursuits include hunting, fishing, camping skiing and other outdoor activities.

What do you like most about science?

Heather: I love having the opportunity to get off the beaten path and satisfy my sense of discovery. Through my work I have explored remote locations and seen rare species throughout Alaska, the western US and South America. These are experiences that I will always treasure.

Steve: Field work-every season, even after 29 years, seeing wild polar bears roaming on the sea ice makes me catch my breath. Writing papers-contributing knowledge that can help managers and policy makers improve conservation efforts.

Here you will find intriguing extras: segments our producers weren't able to fit into a five-minute podcast as well as images, interesting facts and ways to get involved or in touch with biodiversity wherever you live.

Images:

	Beaufort Sea Polar Bear Capture  Images of Dr. Steven Amstrup's research field work Images courtesy of Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com Learn more about Dr. Amstrup’s work the USGS Polar Bear Research website
	Polar Sea Icebreaker Expedition Images from research on polar ice and polar bears in the southern Beaufort and Chukchi Seas Images courtesy of Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com

Facts:

Most hibernators that spend significant amount of times in a winter den suffer bone and muscle loss. But pregnant polar bears are so well adapted to their Arctic lifestyle that they emerge from their den with almost no loss of bone. Understanding how they achieve this may help treat the human disease of bone loss, osteoporosis, and help space travelers of the future maintain bone mass on long space flights.

Medical researchers are eager to know why polar bears, despite a diet high in seal fat, have such low cholesterol.It turns out the seal fat is rich in those Omega-3 fatty acids that control cholesterol in our own blood.

Polar bears only split off from brown bears some 150,000 years ago. Researchers are studying bear fossils and DNA from living polar bears to see how well they coped with climate change in the past.

Participate

Be a polar bear tracker. Follow the polar bears of Hudson Bay via GPS on the World Wildlife Fund's online tracking website and read updates from the Ontario-based researchers.