The installation coincided with International Polar Bear Day, celebrated on Feb. 27 to “focus on the need to protect denning families across the Arctic,” according to polarbearsinternational.org. While Polar Bears do not den, the pregnant females do, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Bechshoft and York are two of more than a dozen researchers, scientists, and volunteers at PBI who share reports, give presentations, and run live cameras that offer people around the world a chance to see what’s happening with the bears. At PBI House — an education center in Churchill funded in part by the organization’s largest corporate sponsor, Canada Goose — there are displays, videos, maps, and models to teach travelers about the bears and their habitat.

Polar Bears International is celebrating International Polar Bear Day on Feb. 27. The group collects data on polar bear mothers and cubs in their dens to help understand and protect the species.

If you missed the start of Polar Bear Weekend at the Seneca Park Zoo, don’t worry. You still have Sunday to visit and learn more about these amazing animals. The zoo is also teaming up with Polar Bears International as part of a conservation effort to help protect this particular species of bear.

Working in close partnership with Canada Goose throughout the academic year, projects by MA Fashion and BA Fashion Communications students will be on display at the Central Saint Martins’ Lethaby Gallery in Granary Square. Each of these projects is inspired by the incredible research scientists at Polar Bears International (PBI), a non-profit organisation focused on polar bear conservation. PBI and Canada Goose are longstanding partners, having been working together on various initiatives since 2007.

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It is even more rare for polar bears to attack this deep into winter since there would normally be a plethora of ice. "This was in that window where historically people would feel pretty safe," explained Geoff York, senior director of conservation at Polar Bears International. "We're seeing the Arctic transform and warm at almost degrees faster than the rest of the planet."

That includes innovating with sustainability at the forefront, phasing out fur in its manufacturing, and forging intentional partnerships, like with Polar Bears International—a 10-plus-year relationship in which a percentage of sales from a collection goes back to the organization that’s dedicated to the conservation of polar bears and the sea ice they depend on—and expanding in the South Asian market, too. The brand further supports those living in the High Arctic by sending them materials that would otherwise be incredibly costly for them to purchase. And within the three years since the launch of Humanature, the response has been “globally phenomenal,” particularly among millennials and Gen Z.

According to Geoff York, the senior director of conservation at Polar Bears International and an expert in human-polar bear coexistence, the recent attack in Wales, Alaska, was “extraordinarily rare.” Most polar bear attacks happen during the ice-free season when it’s warmer and there’s less sea ice.

“Populations have not grown,” Steven Amstrup, chief scientist for Polar Bears International, said in an email. “Rather our growing knowledge has shown there may be more bears in these areas than we previously thought.”

John Whiteman, chief research scientist at Polar Bears International, pointed out that the data is sporadic and not as continuous as the graph makes it appear.

“The ice-free period is about three to four weeks longer than it used to be in the 1980s already. And what this translates to is less time hunting for polar bears and less nutrition for them,” Polar Bears International staff scientist Alysa McCall told Earther in 2022. “The worst-case scenario, of course, is that a human gets injured or killed by a polar bear. And while that’s rare, it does happen.”

In 2018, Polar Bears International helped the Association of Zoos and Aquariums establish the Polar Bear Research Council. The council, made up of zoo experts and polar bear researchers, is focused on keeping research up to date on emerging scientific questions about bears in the wild. The latest polar bear research master plan was completed last year.

Global warming could mean more polar bear attacks.
The killing of an Alaska mother and her 1-year-old son by a polar bear last week suggests that scarcity caused by global warming is raising the risk of attacks by the Arctic bears, The Washington Post reported. “Animals in poor body condition are just more likely to take risks, and those are the bears specifically that people have to be worried about,” Geoff York of Polar Bears International told the Post.

Before last week, the last deadly bear attack in Alaska was in 1990, according to Geoff York, a senior director of conservation at the environmental group Polar Bears International, who co-wrote the 2017 paper. The bear at the time, like others that may attack, showed signs of starvation.

This attack was especially rare because it occurred during the winter, when there is typically more ice. During this time of year, polar bears are usually out on the ice, away from people.

Geoff York, senior director of conservation at Polar Bears International and an expert on human-polar bear coexistence, previously told Newsweek: "This was in that window where historically people would feel pretty safe. So clearly as these changes are occurring in the ecosystem and with the sea ice in these regions, it's becoming a lot more dynamic.

Polar bear interactions with people remain exceedingly rare and usually involve either very young or very old male bears, said Geoff York, senior director of conservation at Polar Bears International, a nonprofit conservation group, earlier this week.

Researchers have linked the increase in polar bear attacks to diminishing sea ice and more bears on shore, as well as to growing human activity in the Arctic, York said.

First, they point out that advertisers — particularly those with large budgets — do want to be able to target by content, as they can with traditional TV, because it’s been demonstrated to improve performance. For instance, according to Vizio, which uses ACR data in part to target users based on what they watch and have watched, including preferred content genres, campaign data shows that ads do tend to work better when there is strong contextual alignment.

To help, zoo polar bear Nora has been beta testing the “Burr on Fur” — a prototype tech innovation designed by 3M in partnership with Polar Bears International to give conservation scientists a better way to track wild bears in the Arctic.

Traditionally, scientists have used satellite collars to follow polar bears, but those only work on adult females.

Polar Bears in accredited zoos have a life expectancy of 23.4 years according to the Kansas City Zoo.

In the wild they live for an average of between 15 and 18 years, according to Polar Bears International.

Kansas City Zoo said it would make its annual contribution from the conservation fund to Polar Bears International in Berlin's memory.

Berlin outlived the average life expectancy of polar bears at zoos, which is 23.4 years, the Kansas City institution said. In the wild, polar bears typically live to 15 to 18 years old, according to Polar Bears International.

In honor of Berlin, the Kansas City Zoo said it will make its annual contribution from its conservation fund to Polar Bears International.