How Not to Get Eaten by Polar Bears

May 8, 2014

A two-day polar safety training sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Earth Sciences Department, and the Institute of Arctic Studies at the Dickey Center focused on staying safe and responding to emergencies, including encountering, or avoiding, polar bears.

Canadian bear expert Andy McMullen spent a day with two dozen Dartmouth graduate and undergraduate students and faculty who's research takes them into Greenland, Alaska, Canada and elsewhere.

Erich Osterberg, an assistant professor in Dartmouth's Department of Earth Sciences, says global climate change is affecting the way research is conducted. "Not all of changing field conditions that scientists face make their job easier. In Greenland, some Dartmouth scientists now carry rifles and hire guards for polar bear protection in areas where the bears were rare until a few years ago."

Read the entire Dartmouth Now story by Joe Blumberg.