Andrew E. Derocher

There’s no doubt that I’m a polar bearaholic but then most people are fascinated by this species. I’ve yet to hear a person say “I don’t like polar bears”. Far from it. People are intrigued by the ice bear for reasons I’ve grappled with for years. As I outline in this book, I think it’s tied to their massive size, remoteness, and their dazzling fur. Any animal that makes a living in such a harsh environment is interesting but being drop-dead gorgeous and potentially deadly seems to spark our interest. Many cultures have deep ties with bears and this likely stems from the fact that humans often compete directly with bears for food and habitat. Dealing with bears is probably coded in our DNA.

There’s no question that a warming planet threatens polar bears and the ecosystem they depend on but this book is more a celebration of polar bears than a requiem. Ultimately, I was convinced to write this book because I feel that we only care about things we know about, so hopefully this book will engage readers and more people will commit to ensuring the polar bear has a future.

I’m currently a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada but I also spent 7 years working in the Norwegian Arctic as a government scientist responsible for studying polar bears. I’ve spent almost 3 decades studying polar bears. As a former chair of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group, I’ve garnered some varied perspectives on this most charismatic denizen of the Arctic. My research covers a wide variety of topics most of which focus on polar bear ecology. I’ve studied a diversity of topics from habitat use to population dynamics to predator-prey relationships to the effects of pollution. In Polar Bears, I’ve tried to distil the essence of the voluminous scientific literature in an accessible manner. I’ve always been keen on making science available to a broader audience and this book is the product of that commitment.