By snapping satellite images of polar bears in the Canadian Arctic, researchers found they could gather information about the mammals almost as accurately as ground surveys, and at a decreased cost. "The key finding and why we think [satellite technology] has a potential use as a tool is that there's pretty high concordance between the abundant estimate derived from aerial surveys and from satellite," said study co-author Todd Atwood, a wildlife biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. Organizations have struggled to monitor the migrations of these animal populations, resulting in a lack of long-term data for species like the walrus, ribbon seal and polar bear, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN). Biologists at the University of Minnesota use satellites to capture images of polar bears in Foxe Basin, Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic.
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