‘This is the only way we know what polar bears are doing out there,’ says Alysa McCall, a staff scientist and director of conservation outreach at Polar Bears International
A handful of GPS-collared polar bears are offering scientists and the public an intimate window into the remote, ice-covered world of the Arctic’s top predator.
And one bear in particular — Betty White — has been stealing the show.
“She’s a big mover,” said Alysa McCall, a staff scientist and director of conservation outreach at Polar Bears International.
“This year, she went all the way across to the east coast of Hudson Bay and back.”
McCall, who lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, has been studying polar bears since 2010 and working with Polar Bears International for more than a decade.
She helps provide seasonal updates on the organization’s bear tracker, a publicly accessible online tool that follows the movements of collared female polar bears.
The tool allows users to click on each bear’s ID number — or name, if they’ve been sponsored — to learn more about where they’ve been, what cubs they had when they were collared, and what stage of the reproductive cycle they’re likely in.
Betty White’s profile, for example, shows she has two yearlings. On Jan. 29, she was tracked near Puvirnituq, Que. She was last tracked on April 18 towards the western side of Hudson Bay. McCall said she’s known to be an excellent seal hunter and is consistently seen in good condition.
Another bear named Vicky was last tracked while denned and pregnant in 2024. McCall said her collar has stopped transmitting, but researchers spotted her from a helicopter on March 7 with two new cubs.
She’s now likely close to the coast, hunting and nursing, while avoiding long swims that are risky for small cubs, McCall said.
Only adult females are collared because males have necks wider than their heads and can easily slip off any tracking device, McCall said.
Alongside GPS collaring, researchers are also testing new tracking technologies.
The Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat participated in a study last year testing minimally invasive tracking devices developed by Polar Bears International and 3M.
“The purpose of the new Bur on Fur device is to help fill a data gap for movements of male bears and young bears that are unable to wear a collar,” said Amy Baxendell-Young, the Cochrane facility’s manager.
“The new devices would be used in collaboration with the traditional tracking collars.”
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The device attaches between a bear’s shoulder blades and is intended to fall off naturally when the bear sheds. Baxendell-Young said these devices would be used in collaboration with traditional tracking collars.
While the GPS collars offer valuable data, McCall said researchers must blend that information with an understanding of polar bear biology to form a full picture.
“It’s a bit of a puzzle,” she said. “What do I know? What do I guess? What is this bear telling us?”
Only a handful of GPS collars — about 10 a year — are deployed across the entire Western and Southern Hudson Bay populations. The collars cost around $6,000 each, not including the additional cost of satellite data subscriptions.
The GPS collars are deployed through long-term monitoring programs conducted by research teams from Environment and Climate Change Canada and the University of Alberta. These efforts involve flying over remote tundra by helicopter.
Sometimes bears are darted with a biopsy tool to retrieve small samples of hair and fat, which is less invasive than full captures. But for collaring, the bears are tranquilized for a short period so researchers can collect detailed data on their health, body size, and age before fitting the collar.
The collars are designed to eventually fall off either through a timed release mechanism or through corrosion of the links. Collars sometimes stop transmitting, especially after long swims, but may resume once they’ve dried out.
“The bears are tough on equipment, and the Arctic is tough on equipment,” McCall said. “These bears are swimming, rolling on ice, in freezing temperatures and salty conditions.”
The data being collected is helping scientists monitor shifting trends in sea ice and bear behaviour, she said.
“This is the only way we know what polar bears are doing out there,” McCall said.
“They want to be far out on the sea ice, hunting seals, away from people. The collars let us spy on the secret life of polar bears.”
McCall said that spring is a particularly fascinating time. It’s the season when bears fatten up after a long winter and cubs begin to learn how to hunt. Adult females typically wean their cubs at 2.5 years old, and begin mating again. Using data points and known life cycles, McCall can estimate whether a bear is likely raising cubs or preparing for a new litter.
Another key tool for researchers is the fat scorecard, a visual index from one to five that gauges a bear’s condition, from emaciated to obese (which is a good thing for pregnant females). The scoring helps track trends across populations, revealing the impacts of environmental changes.
“In the fall, we usually see a lot of average body sizes, threes. But if there’s a bad ice year, we might see more twos and ones,” McCall said.
“It’s a way to track how bears are doing over time.”
Places like Churchill, Man. — home to the world’s largest annual gathering of polar bears — offer a unique chance for up-close assessments, McCall said, with researchers and tourists alike catching glimpses of these massive animals as they wait for the sea ice to return.
Polar bear populations in Western and Southern Hudson Bay have been declining over the past few decades, a trend closely linked to climate change and sea ice loss. Tracking data, combined with satellite imagery and studies of prey availability, is helping build a clearer picture of what lies ahead, McCall said.
“There’s still a lot of hope,” she said. “But we need to keep collecting data. The more we know, the better we can protect them.”
Betty White is still on the move. Her collar continues to transmit, offering fans and researchers the chance to peek into her arctic adventures.
To follow Betty White and other polar bears, visit polarbearsinternational.org.
