Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Of fingerprints and polar bear whiskers
What do human fingerprints and polar bear “whisker prints” have in common?
You probably guessed — both give away identity.
Jane Waterman, a Canadian biologist at the University of Central Florida, is asking any tourist who takes a photo of a polar bear around Churchill, Canada, to send it to her to help study the bears. Here’s her website.
Polar bears look pretty much the same to most people — big, white and to be avoided.
But the ”whisker prints”, the pattern of dark dots around the mouth, are unique and Waterman hopes that snapshots taken around Churchill will build a record of what the bears get up to. Bears are in trouble because global warming is melting their icy Arctic homes.
