. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1999 Burnett: Chapter 4: Working with Mammals 69. Ian Stirling holds a Polar Bear cub prior to tagging and weighing it. The 1991 data are part of a long-term study in the James Bay/Hudson Bay area on the impacts of climatic change on the condition and reproductive success of Polar Bears (Photo credit: A. E. Derocher). therefore, to capture the same bear the next spring and to find her in good health and caring for new- bom cubs. As an epilogue to the tale, he was able to write: "It was clear she had not suffered unduly from her interlude with
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1999 Burnett: Chapter 4: Working with Mammals 69. Ian Stirling holds a Polar Bear cub prior to tagging and weighing it. The 1991 data are part of a long-term study in the James Bay/Hudson Bay area on the impacts of climatic change on the condition and reproductive success of Polar Bears (Photo credit: A. E. Derocher). therefore, to capture the same bear the next spring and to find her in good health and caring for new- bom cubs. As an epilogue to the tale, he was able to write: "It was clear she had not suffered unduly from her interlude with ;^ Some bears were not so lucky. During the late 1970s, as interest grew in the topic of mineral resource extraction in the Arctic, questions arose in the Polar Bear Specialists Group and at lUCN as to what might happen to a Polar Bear if its coat were contaminated by an oil spill. Four bears were cap- tured, and three were exposed to small quantities of oil. The results were alarming. The bears attempted to clean the oil from their fur by licking and became ill. Two of the three died. The fourth bear was released, and the testing was halted at once.^^ Because of Canada's international commitment under the Polar Bear Convention, study of this species was sustained even after 1984, when much CWS mammal work was curtailed as a result of bud- get cutbacks. Chemical contamination has been an ongoing topic of research. In the early 1970s, CWS toxicologist Gerald (Gerry) Bowes found high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Polar Bear tissue samples.^^ The discovery was one of several pieces of evidence that atmospheric and oceanic cur- rents were transporting contaminants to the polar regions of the Earth. In recent years, the monitoring of contaminant levels in Polar Bears has been a major interest of Ross J. Norstrom of the CWS tox- ics section (see Chapter 8).^' Other recent studies by CWS and other Canadian agencies and institutions have addressed a wide variety of subj
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