WWF and PBI's Tundra Buggy in Hudson Bay, Canada

Geoff York, the WWF International Arctic Programme Polar Bear Conservation Coordinator, has just finished working with a group of scientists on a unique program of study of polar bears in the wild - the Tundra Buggy project. » Read more

Polar bears sending a message to the world!

WWF polar bear experts spent couple of weeks in November 2008 in the 'polar bear capital of the world', the town of Churchill, on the shores of Hudson Bay in Canada.

WWF Arctic Programme’s Polar Bear biologist, Geoff York, and WWF Canada biologist, Pete Ewins, both took part in a programme organised by Polar Bears International (PBI).

The programme involved trips out on the tundra in a fully wired 'Tundra Buggy' that took the experts out among the polar bears, and allowed them to broadcast live to educational institutions and media around the world.

“This is an important opportunity,” says Geoff York. “I know people are distracted by the global credit crunch right now, but it is critical that they focus on a bigger problem, climate change in the Arctic. This bear population is clearly telling us climate change is beginning to bite in the Arctic, and that has implications for the rest of the world. We can and must take urgent and effective action on climate change, not just for the sake of these bears, but also for our own sakes.”

Photos from the Tundra Buggy