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Tracking polar bears by satellite - real-time data
 Effective implementation of the “Polar Bear Management Agreement for the Southern Beaufort Sea” (Agreement) between Inupiat hunters of Alaska and Inuvialuit hunters of Canada is dependent on the best information on the discreteness and overlap of neighboring polar bear populations. The three recognized populations in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, northern Beaufort (NBS), southern Beaufort (SBS) and Chukchi Sea (CS) have traditionally been presented with hard boundaries that do not account for this overlap. This study is a new analytical procedure that quantifies the degree of overlap between adjacent populations and provides science for better management of the harvest of polar bears in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. This new analytical approach allows previously accepted population management units to be subdivided in ways that will greatly improve the accuracy of allocation of harvest quotas among hunting communities and jurisdictions while assuring that harvests remain within the bounds of sustainable yield.
Amstrup, S.C., G.M. Durner, I. Stirling, and T.L. McDonald. 2005. Using radiotelemetry to allocate harvests among polar bear stocks occupying the Beaufort Sea Region. Arctic 58: 247-259.
Amstrup, S.C., T.L. McDonald, and G.M. Durner. 2004. Using Satellite radiotelemetry
data to delineate and manage wildlife populations. Wildlife
Society Bulletin 32:661-679.
 Grizzly bears and polar bears are important species for subsistence communities along the Beaufort Sea coast for food, fur, and cultural significance. Much of our current knowledge about bear populations, habitat use, movements, and interactions with oil and gas activities on the Alaska northern coast (North Slope) has been the result of repeated captures of tagged individuals. Application of existing and emerging Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, currently used for military and commerce, has the potential to significantly increase the sample size of marked bears by decreasing the cost of recapturing bears. An RFID system contains two major components: tags and a reader. The goal is to adapt the RFID system and test its feasibility for wildlife research and management by modifying the tags so they can be attached to bear ears and by modifying the reader for use in aircraft and land vehicles. Testing the RFID system began with tag deployment in 2005 for the Oilfield Grizzly Bear Project. RFID tags were deployed on polar bears in spring 2006.
2007 Update
We continued our pilot study of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) ear tags. RFID tags, if proven in the field, will allow relatively inexpensive remote identification of individual animals at ranges exceeding 1500 feet from either aerial platforms or the ground. Currently all non-collared bears have to be captured each season for positive identification. A total of 17 tags were deployed in spring 2007 (53 were deployed in 2006). Six bears tagged with RFID in 2006 were encountered in 2007 allowing some preliminary assessment of tag performance and persistence. Of the six bears encountered, three retained functioning RF tags (1 male and 2 females) and three bears had lost the RF tags (2 males and 1 female) Tags deployed in 2007 were considerably smaller than those deployed in 2006, which we hope will improve retention. The spring 2007 and future deployment of RFID tags will allow us to fully assess their utility in wildlife research.
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