Did You Adopt A Polar Bear This Year? Here’s What We Accomplished Together!

Hi, I’m Nick Paroshy! I study polar bears at the University of Alberta. This past year, Earth Rangers like you adopted a whopping 478 polar bears. That’s almost 500 polar bears! Because of your support, I spent this past year in the Arctic Circle, studying how polar bears move through the ice, snow, and sea.

Researching animals takes a team. Because so many of you adopted polar bears, I knew I had the best team supporting me. I wouldn’t have been able to complete as much of my project — or have as much fun talking about polar bears — without you. Hopefully, everything I’ve learned while researching polar bears will help us make changes, as a team, to protect polar bears and their habitat!

I’m so excited to tell you about everything I accomplished thanks to your polar bear adoptions!

This past year, I traveled to the Arctic Circle. My job was to find polar bears on the sea ice and put special collars on them. These collars help researchers like me follow polar bears wherever they go!

Bears spend most their time traveling on the sea ice, looking for food. Their habitat is huge, and they can walk and swim a long way! When their habitat changes, like when sea ice melts because of climate change, it becomes harder for polar bears to find food, get around, and raise their babies.

For my project, I tried to learn more about where polar bears spend their time. If we know that, we can do a better job of protecting their habitat.

Have you ever wondered how you find a polar bear in the Arctic? You just follow their pawprints! Follow a trail of polar bear pawprints–also known as tracks–and you just might find a bear!

But tracks can be hard to spot. Check out this photo I took: Can you spot the polar bear tracks?

Wildlife adoptions aren’t the only way you can protect animals! Small actions make big changes. Encourage your friends, your parents, and your family to care about polar bears. Together, we can protect polar bears, seals, caribou, and all the other animals in Canada’s Arctic. We need kids just like you to be curious about science. You can study animals the same way I do, and when you grow up, you can have a career in conservation! Maybe I’ll even meet some of you out on the sea ice someday!