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Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens

View ORCID ProfileTom S. Smith, Steven C. Amstrup, John Kirschhoffer, Geoffrey York
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/763144
Tom S. Smith
1Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation Program, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United States of America
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  • For correspondence: tom_smith@byu.edu
Steven C. Amstrup
2Polar Bears International, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America
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John Kirschhoffer
2Polar Bears International, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America
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Geoffrey York
2Polar Bears International, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America
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Abstract

Denned polar bears are invisible under the snow, therefore winter-time petroleum exploration and development activities in northern Alaska have potential to disturb maternal polar bears and their cubs. Previous research determined forward looking infrared (FLIR) imagery could detect many polar bear maternal dens under the snow, but also identified limitations of FLIR imagery. We evaluated the efficacy of FLIR-surveys conducted by oil-field operators from 2004-2016. Aerial FLIR surveys detected 15 of 33 (45%) and missed 18 (55%) of the dens known to be within surveyed areas. While greater adherence to previously recommended protocols may improve FLIR detection rates, the physical characteristics of polar bear maternal dens, increasing frequencies of weather unsuitable for FLIR detections—caused by global warming, and competing “hot spots” are likely to prevent FLIR surveys from detecting maternal dens reliably enough to afford protections consonant with increasing global threats to polar bear welfare.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted September 09, 2019.
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Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens
Tom S. Smith, Steven C. Amstrup, John Kirschhoffer, Geoffrey York
bioRxiv 763144; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/763144
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Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens
Tom S. Smith, Steven C. Amstrup, John Kirschhoffer, Geoffrey York
bioRxiv 763144; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/763144

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