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Article: Remote Identification of Polar Bear Maternal Den Habitat in Northern Alaska.(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Arctic
- Article date:
- June 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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GEORGE M. DURNER [1]
STEVEN C. AMSTRUP [1]
KEN J. AMBROSIUS [2]
(Received 1 February 2000; accepted in revised form 30 August 2000)
ABSTRACT. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) give birth in dens of ice and snow to protect their altricial young. During the snow-free season, we visited 25 den sites located previously by radiotelemetry and characterized the den site physiognomy. Seven dens occurred in habitats with minimal relief Eighteen dens (72%) were in coastal and river banks. These "banks" were identifiable on aerial photographs. We then searched high-resolution aerial photographs (n = 3000) for habitats similar to those of the 18 dens. ...