Scientists predict that if climate change is not addressed effectively polar bear populations in the Arctic will drop by more than 60 per cent by mid-century, due to global warming. In our role as Conservation Partner, Canon Europe has increased support for the global conservation organisation WWF to support polar bear conservation and to find out more about how polar bears adapt to their changing environment.
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The WWF-Canon Polar Bear Tracking Programme has charted the movements of polar bears around Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean over the last four years.
Using radio collars placed around the bears’ necks, their positions are transmitted via satellite to scientists. This allows researchers to receive regular information on the bears’ movements. When scientists fit a bear with a radio collar they also collect important information about its health.
With only 20 to 25,000 bears left in the vast Arctic region, this number is at risk of falling dramatically as the Arctic is already experiencing a warming climate and changes in its environment at a much faster rate than anywhere else in the world.
Polar bears need sea ice to access their food, and to move from hunting grounds to their denning or summer resting areas.
We have helped ensure that polar bears were tagged in 2007 and 2008. The information on the bears’ movements combined with information about sea ice distribution is giving scientists insight into how the bears behave in their natural environment, and how they are being affected by climate change. With this knowledge, it will be easier to determine necessary measures to protect polar bears in their environment. The most important action to ensure a future for the polar bear is to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Running alongside the tracking programme is the Canon Kid’s Zone
, a children’s microsite which educates young people on the effects of global warming.
Find information on the Canon-WWF Conservation Partnership
Read more about our Environmental Activities
Photo credits (l-r top): (c) WWF-Canon/Michel TERRETTAZ, (c) WWF-Canon/Wim VAN PASSEL, (c) WWF-Canon/Svein B. OPPEGAARD, (c) WWF-Canon/François PIERREL, (c) WWF-Canon/Martin HARVEY, (l-r bottom): (c) WWF-Canon/Michel TERRETTAZ, (c) WWF-Canon/Svein B. OPPEGAARD, (c) WWF/www.JSGrove.com, (c) WWF-Canon/Svein B. OPPEGAARD
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