Identifying polar bears by their footprints
![Polar Bears hunton the ice north of Utqiaġvik, the farthest north community in the United States. Photo by Craig George. Identifying polar bears by their footprints](https://alaska-native-news.com/wp-content/uploads/image2023-04-16-2.jpg)
Scientists in northern Alaska are learning about polar bears by scraping snow samples from the tracks they leave behind. That snow contains tiny flecks of the massive creatures — mostly cells shed from their foot pads. From the DNA within those cells, scientists have been able to identify individual polar bears. Lisette Waits of the […]