A project involving 91��ɫ, 3M and Polar Bears International presents field research deploying the first-ever fur tracking tags on polar bears, a less invasive method advancing wildlife research and coexistence; the report publishes on Arctic Sea Ice Day

TORONTO, July 15, 2024 – Studying polar bears just became a lot easier with new “burr on fur” trackers which confirmed scientists’ belief that subadult and adult males spend most of their time on land lazing around, conserving energy until the ice returns.

A multi-institutional research team led by 91��ɫ and including the University of Alberta, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Manitoba Sustainable Development, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and Polar Bears International, used three different “burr on fur” prototypes to study their effectiveness.

The paper, “,” published in the journal Animal Biotelemetry, details the first peer-reviewed examination of these new tracking devices that adhere to the fur of polar bears.

Studying polar bears is a difficult feat with current radio collars only suitable to be used on female bears leaving out a swath of the population, but new technology is providing researchers with a new tool which has confirmed the behaviour of adult male polar bears while on land waiting for the ice to form again.

Efforts to develop less-invasive tracking options and tools that could work on polar bears of both sexes and nearly all ages have been ongoing for years with varying success. Collars have been and remain the primary means of studying polar bear movements. More recently, ear tag transmitters have been used as a lighter-weight alternative. While both technologies serve an important role in helping study and conserve polar bears, researchers continually strive to develop methods that are both minimally invasive and provide quality data.

This led to a new tracking initiative known as “Burr on Fur,” which began as a challenge from Polar Bears International to 3M scientists, the global science and manufacturing company behind Post-It notes, to create a temporary, simple method for affixing small tracking units to polar bear fur. Three “Burr on Fur” prototypes were recently tested on wild polar bears along the coast of Hudson Bay, Canada, alongside traditional ear tag transmitters.   

The shortcomings with traditional tracking methods: The ear tag and “Burr on Fur” devices fill an important niche for scientists and wildlife managers. The new tags allow researchers to follow the movements of adult male and subadult polar bears, two groups that can’t be studied using traditional satellite collars. Adult males can’t wear collars because they slip off their cone-shaped necks and heads, and subadult bears grow too rapidly for safe collar use. Traditional ear tags are an alternative to collars. However, they currently require recapture to remove and, although rare, can pose a risk of injury to the ear. The new Burr on Fur tags are designed to be temporary, minimally invasive, and can be applied to both sexes and nearly all ages of polar bears.

“Successfully attaching telemetry tags to polar bear fur has never been done before, and we’re excited to share the results of this innovative work,” said Tyler Ross, lead author of the paper and a researcher at 91��ɫ's Faculty of Science. “The fur tags showed great promise and give researchers the ability to study the behaviors and movements of polar bears that we have very little data on, like subadult and adult male bears.”

The study: 58 wild bears were tagged using ear tags and three distinct fur tag designs to compare both the duration of time the tags remained active while attached to the bears and the accuracy of the trackers. Applied alongside a traditional ear tag, which relied on an Argos Transmitter, the three fur tags were:

• The Pentagon Tag: this five-sided device included five holes punched into its corners, allowing tufts of fur to be pulled through. It utilized an Argos Eartag Satellite Transmitter.
• The SeaTrkr Tag: an oval-shaped tag that had 10 holes punched to allow 10 fur-tuft attachments. This design used an Iridium-linked Telonics GPS SeaTrkr-4370 transmitter.
• The Tribrush Tag: a triangle tag outfitted with tubes along its borders, through which pipe brushes ensnared the fur, twisting it inside the tubes. This tag used the same Argos transmitter as the Pentagon tags.

The research took place from autumn 2016 to 2021 with bears handled near Churchill, Canada, by the Polar Bear Alert Program and researchers at the University of Alberta, supplemented with operations by researchers at Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, 91��ɫ, and Manitoba Sustainable Development in 2021-22 near the Manitoba-Ontario border.

“Our results are an important step in better understanding the movements and behavior of polar bears, especially adult male bears, which are difficult to track because they can’t be fitted with satellite collars. Temporary, fur-mounted tags could also help track the movements of bears relocated after potentially coming into conflict with people, making these tags an important tool for conserving polar bears and keeping northern communities safe,” says 91��ɫ Associate Professor and Sustainable Environmental Management Coordinator of the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change and the report’s co-author.

Results: The top-performing fur tag was the SeaTrkr Tag, which remained attached to the bears for an average of 58 days and had superior accuracy due to its use of GPS/Iridium technology. In second place, the Tribrush Tags remained attached for an average of 47 days. However, for the Tribrush Tag, the times varied widely, with one falling off after only two days while another lasted 114 days – the longest of all the tags.

Because they are permanently attached to the bears’ ears, the traditional ear tags remained in place for 137 days on average, while the shorter-term fur-based trackers proved to be reliable for shorter periods. The fur tags proved useful for monitoring bear behavior, and show great promise for future use in tracking polar bears, especially those that must be relocated after approaching too close to communities. Further testing and refinement are also being conducted on bears in zoos and aquariums through zoo and aquarium partners, allowing researchers to further refine the designs and see how they perform throughout different seasons. In the most recent round of zoo testing, a refined tag stayed on a bear for 75 days.

Important Data about Male and Subadult Polar Bears: The new data adds to our growing understanding of subadult and adult male polar bear movements and behaviors, which have been historically understudied because they cannot be safely collared for long periods. Findings confirm that adult and subadult male bears reduce their activity while on land, consistent with prior studies that showed bears spent approximately 70 to 90 per cent of their time resting during the ice-free period in Hudson Bay.     

Implications: While the ear tags remained attached to the bears longer, the temporary and easily affixed fur tags give scientists a new tool for enhanced tracking of bears for purposes of both applied research and managing human-bear interactions. The tracking tech could be applied to other types of bears, supporting efforts to reduce human-bear conflict, and future applications could include testing on other species with fur. While traditional tracking methods, such as collars, will remain critical for longer-term studies, the fur tags will prove a as the climate warms. 

“The collaboration between Polar Bears International, 3M, academic institutions, and governmental partners is a testament to our commitment to improving Arctic wildlife research and conservation technology,” says Geoff 91��ɫ, Senior Director of Research and Policy at Polar Bears International, adding, “These advancements will have tangible implications for wildlife management, aiding in tracking polar bears and promoting improved human-bear coexistence. We’re eager to further refine and deploy this pivotal technology.” 

About Arctic Sea Ice Day: These findings publish on July 15, which is , an annual event created by Polar Bears International to spark actions and conversations about the rapidly melting Arctic ecosystem, including its global significance and how people can help slow this warming trend. The Arctic is now warming nearly than the rest of the planet, causing the sea ice to melt, which causes polar bears to spend longer periods fasting on land.

Polar Bears International invites people to access the full report and urges the scientific community to consider the implications of these findings for further research and application in conservation and coexistence efforts.

About 91��ɫ

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

About 3M

3M (NYSE: MMM) believes science helps create a brighter world for everyone. By unlocking the power of people, ideas and science to reimagine what's possible, our global team uniquely addresses the opportunities and challenges of our customers, communities, and planet. Learn how we're working to improve lives and make what's next at . 

About Polar Bears International

Polar Bears International’s mission is to conserve polar bears and the sea ice they depend on. We also work to inspire people to care about the Arctic, the threats to its future, and the connection between this fragile ecosystem and our global climate. Polar Bears International is the only nonprofit organization dedicated solely to wild polar bears and Arctic sea ice, and its staff includes scientists who study wild polar bears. The organization is a recognized leader in polar bear conservation. For more information, visit .

Media Contacts

Annie Edwards, for Polar Bears International, +44 07307 139782, annie@fabricmedia.net

Melissa Hourigan, for Polar Bears International, +1 720-608-1919, melissa@fabricmedia.net

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TORONTO, July 7, 2020 – What causes African hybrid honey bees (AHB), also known as killer bees, to be highly defensive and aggressive? 91��ɫ researchers have found it was the mixing of African and European genetics that led to hyper-aggression in this invasive strain of honey bees.

AHBs are a genetics experiment gone wrong. Researchers in Brazil imported a honey bee subspecies from South African and bred them with European-derived honey bees in the 1950s. The idea was to develop a better subtropical honey bee, but bees escaped and mated with the local bees.

“The resulting bees were highly invasive and aggressive, much more than the European honey bees used by North and South American beekeepers at the time,” says Associate Professor of the Faculty of Science, a co-author on the paper led by previous 91��ɫ PhD student , now an assistant professor at Purdue University. “The genetics causing this hyper defensiveness were not well known, but the prevailing wisdom was that killer bees are aggressive because South African bees are aggressive.”

Professor Amro Zayed in his Faculty of Science lab

The new AHB colonies rapidly reproduced and spread across, not only Brazil, but South America, Central America and, by 1990, the southern United States. Today, they have completely replaced the European-derived honey bee in Brazil and are the most common honey bee from Northern Argentina to the southern United States.

The research team measured the defence response of 116 Brazilian AHB colonies using the Suede Ball test (see by one of the researchers, Samir Kadri, a former 91��ɫ visiting PhD student from Brazil). A suede ball is gently swung for one minute in front of the colony entrance stimulating a defense response in the bees and encouraging additional bees to sting the ball.

“We sequenced the genomes of the most aggressive colonies, which would sting the ball 90 times or more per minute, and the least aggressive colonies,” says Harpur. “We then compared the genomes of the most and least aggressive colonies to identify mutations that associate with these differences in behaviour.”

“The most defensive colonies in our study were more related to South African honey bees except at several regions of their genome that influence aggression. Here, they were more related to honey bees from Western Europe,” says Zayed. “That is – it was the mixing of these two honey bee subspecies that led to hyper aggression.”

How DNA from these two subspecies interacts to influence defense response is an important next question.

The was published in the journal .

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91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

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Bee photos by community scientists contribute to much needed data for conservation efforts

TORONTO, June 29, 2020 – Think you can identify that bumble bee you just took a photo of in your backyard? 91��ɫ researchers have found that a little more than 50 per cent of community science participants, who submitted photos to the North American program, were able to properly identify the bee species.

Community science is a popular tool used by conservation biologists to engage the public in scientific data collection to inform conservation policy and management decisions.

Bombus terricola. Photo credit: PhD candidate Victoria MacPhail, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ

In the case of Bumble Bee Watch, the collected data is from all over North America and can feed into conservation plans to better protect the bees and their habitats, and even to know what habitats they need, knowledge on how different species are doing, and even legal protections for endangered bee species. Tens of thousands of bees have been recorded, including those at-risk.

“That data is incredibly important. It’s data that would otherwise may not be captured,” says PhD student Victoria MacPhail of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) and lead author of the published today in the journal .

But if the bee identifications made by the public are inaccurate close to 50 per cent of the time, that puts a lot of strain on the enlisted experts to verify or correct the identifications.

“Accurate species level identification is an important first step for effective conservation management decisions,” says MacPhail. “Those community science programs that have experts review submitted photos to determine if the identification is correct have a higher scientific value.”

Bombus rufocinctus. Photo credit: PhD candidate Victoria MacPhail, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ

There are 46 species of bumble bees in North America. Community scientists collected or identified about 39 species, although not always correctly. Some of the species the participants were most likely to get wrong were the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee and the American Bumble Bee. Both are declining and listed as critical or of special concern. MacPhail thinks much of that has to do with wishful thinking.

“Everyone wants to find an endangered bumble bee in their backyard,” she says. “But the accuracy of initial identification is important for determining the utility and quality of community science-collected data.”

The researchers, including Assistant Professor of FES and PhD student Shelby Gibson of the Faculty of Science, analyzed more than 22,000 expert-reviewed submissions to Bumble Bee Watch. Some 52 per cent were correctly identified by species, 38 per cent were incorrectly identified, while another nine per cent were invalid (not a bumble bee).

Some species are easier to identify than others, which is why the researchers are looking into the possibility of using artificial intelligence to verify submissions of those easier-to-identify bees. They will also look at providing more tools and resources to help participants properly identify the bee in their photos, including pop-up windows to offer tips on what to look for to identify that particular species before the final submission is made.

Better accuracy of identification means the data can be put to use faster and it will save valuable expert time, allowing them to give more timely feedback, engage participants, enhance educational value and aid in retention of the valuable resource of community scientists.

PHOTOS:

Volunteers taking photos of bees – Credit: PhD candidate Victoria MacPhail, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ

Credit: PhD candidate Victoria MacPhail, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ

Bees on flowers –

Bombus rufocinctus. Credit: PhD candidate Victoria MacPhail, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ

Bombus bohemicus. Credit: Assistant Professor Sheila Colla, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ

Bombus terricola. Credit: PhD candidate Victoria MacPhail, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ

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91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

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