From bowhead whales to walruses to lemmings, nothing captures the imagination and attention of people more than Arctic wildlife. Here residents and observers of the Arctic discuss and show the remarkable beauty and precious, fragile nature of life in the Arctic.
Senior Wildlife Biologist, North Slope Borough, Dept. of Wildlife Management, Barrow, AK: Bowhead Whales
Dr. George Divoky
Seabird Biologist
Dr George Divoky has been studying seabirds in arctic Alaska since 1970 and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is the founder of Friends of Cooper Island, a nonprofit scientific/education organization that maintains the long-term study of seabirds on Cooper Island and preserves and distributes Cooper Island data for use by current and future researchers studying climate change and other Arctic phenomena. Divoky also has an active outreach program speaking to conservation organizations and school groups.
Studying the Black Guillemots of Cooper Island has largely been a solitary venture for George. While the discovery and initial years of the study were part of governmental research related to oil development in northern Alaska, for the past two decades the work has been conducted with occasional grants and personal dedication.
Divoky’s research on Cooper Island was featured in a January 6, 2002 cover story in the New York Times Magazine entitled “George Divoky’s Planet," written by Darcy Frey.
Divoky conducts annual observations of Black Guillemots breeding on Cooper Island in the Arctic Ocean, 20 miles east of Point Barrow, Alaska. He stays on the wind-swept island every summer for the full breeding season of 100 days. His long-term study has allowed him to make startling observations about climate change.
A Few Photos from Cooper Island
Dr. Steven C. Amstrup
Research Wildlfie Biologist, Polar Bears
Dr. Steven C. Amstrup, Polar Bear Scientist, talks about the state of polar bear research and relates that to climate change and how polar nations are working together to share information. Dr. Amstrup is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK. He led the international team of researchers which prepared 9 reports that became the basis for the recent decision, by the Secretary of Interior, to list polar bears as a threatened species.
Alaska's foremost polar bear expert talks about the effect of the retreating ice on bears
Research Wildlife Biologist, Alaska Science Center, USGS, Anchorage, Alaska. Dr. Amstrup talks about Polar Bear science and managing bears as the pole warms up and the ice retreats.
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The Polar Bear Scientists(available January 2012)
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Geoff York
Arctic Program's polar bear expert for World Wildlife Fund
Geoff York recently joined WWF as the Arctic Program’s polar bear expert. He is based in the WWF Alaska field office in downtown Anchorage, working closely with the Kamchatka/Bering Sea team as well as with the broader WWF team throughout the circumpolar Arctic. Geoff has lived in Alaska since 1990 when he came north to pursue a Masters degree in science/biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He has 12 years of field experience in the Arctic, most recently as a Biologist and Program Manager for the U.S. Geological Survey's Polar Bear Project, the leading polar bear research team in the US (see Amstrup above). His work included leading field efforts in the capture and handling of 100s of bears, tagging them, collecting a variety of biological samples to assess disease and health related parameters, and collaring a few adult females with radio telemetry devices to tracking the bears’ movements on sea ice.
The work can be dangerous and exciting
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Mike Lockhart
Field Biologist
Mike Lockhart has provided field assistance on polar bear research projects for the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 2001. He has extensive experience with wildlife survey, capture, and telemetry techniques which have been put to use in polar bear field studies. Mike has an M.S. in Biology and has worked in wildlife conservation since 1975. He retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008 after 33 years with that agency, but continues to work actively as a consultant and field biologist. During his tenure with FWS, Mike conducted and/or participated in a host of research projects on birds of prey, carnivores and ungulates; investigated energy development, contaminant, and oil spill effects on wildlife and developed management responses; helped establish a new National Wildlife Refuge near Denver, Colorado; assisted with regulation development and management of the Federal subsistence program in Alaska; and, finally, served as the Species Coordinator for the Service’s endangered black-footed ferret recovery program. Mike now lives in Laramie, Wyoming.
Three of the following interview clips contain spectacular photos that Mike has taken during nine field seasons in the Arctic
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.
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Dr. Cheryl Rosa
Research Biologist & Wildlife Veterinarian
Dr. Cheryl Rosa is Deputy Director and Anchorage-based Alaska Director of the United States Arctic Research Commission (USARC). She helps the seven-member, presidentially appointed Commission in its efforts to strengthen Arctic research and ties to the State of Alaska and international partners. Dr. Rosa, a Research Biologist and Wildlife Veterinarian for the North Slope Borough (NSB) Department of Wildlife Management in Barrow, Alaska, received a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Tufts University and a Doctorate in Biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Dr. Rosa has been active on the North Slope in a wide range of studies, including wildlife health and zoonotic disease, marine mammal stranding response, subsistence food safety and oil spill/offshore discharge research. She is a member of the International Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee, the Science Advisory Panel of the North Pacific Research Board and the Polar Bear Technical Committee (past). Dr. Rosa has worked and lived in the Arctic for almost a decade.
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Inupiaq Eskimo elder Eugene Brower
Inupiaq Eskimo elder Eugene Brower, in Barrow, Alaska, is a whaling captain like his father before him. Here he tells some amazing stories about wildlife he's observed when out on the ice, one about a rogue walrus, an amazing polar bear, a white whale and a whale that showed him and his crew just who is boss.
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Geoff Carroll
Area Wildlife Biologist, Alaska Department of Fish & Game
Geoff Carroll, Area Wildlife Biologist for Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, who looks after the animals in a 56,000 sq mile region on the North Slope, talks about his early work with on the bowhead whale census. He also tells a few tales about polar bears and muskox.
Geoff's Polar Bear Story
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Dr. John C. "Craig" George
Senior Wildlife Biologist (Bowhead Whales)
Department of Wildlife Management
North Slope Borough, Barrow, Alaska
Craig George has worked as a Wildlife Biologist with the North Slope Department of Wildlife Management in Barrow, Alaska for 25 years. Craig earned a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the Utah State University in 1976 and recently completed his Ph.D. in bowhead whale energetics, age estimation and morphology (comprehensive exams 2001). Beginning in 1982, Craig worked on and later coordinated the bowhead whale ice-based population assessment project on the sea ice near Point Barrow for nearly two decades. He also has conducted many postmortem exams on bowheads harvested by Alaskan Eskimos (since 1980) and published a number of papers on this work ranging from evidence of killer whale predation to structural anatomy to population biology. Craig has attended IWC meetings since 1987 focusing mainly on aboriginal whaling management procedures and assessments and population estimation. He has also participated in Eskimo traditional knowledge studies on the North Slope. Craig has lived in Barrow since 1977 and is married to Cyd Hanns, a wildlife technician. Together they enjoy community and outdoor activities with their two sons Luke and Sam.
