WWF supports research on wildlife populations throughout the Arctic and around the world.
Using radio collars, which transmit location data by satellite, researchers can follow individual animals to learn more about their habitats, behaviour and migration patterns.
The researchers share this data with WWF regularly, so check back often to see where the animals are going!
The Norwegian Polar Institute studies and tracks polar bears in Svalbard, Norway.
The Viscount Melville polar bear subpopulation occupies the region north of Banks Island and Victoria Island, in the Viscount-Melville Sound and eastern portion of M’Clure Strait. The western portion of this region is in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (NWT), and the eastern part is in Nunavut.
In recent years the sea ice in the Viscount Melville region has dramatically changed, and recent satellite imaging indicates the region is now ice free in late summer. The impact of this drastic change in habitat and environmental conditions on polar bear populations and movement patterns has yet to be studied.
In spring 2012, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Northwest Territories, with the financial support of WWF, conducted a biological field work program on this subpopulation, which involved a mark-capture inventory of all bears encountered and satellite collaring of 14 adult female polar bears.
In August 2011 and 2012, representatives from WWF Canada worked with a field crew to fit satellite tags to a number of narwhals in the region of North Baffin Island, Canada. These satellite tags allow us to follow the movements of the narwhal as they go about their annual feeding and reproductive routines, in order to better understand these unique creatures.
Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF has been working in the Arabian Peninsular since 2001 and since 2010 has been researching the migration patterns and behaviour of post-nesting Hawksbill turtles in the Arabian/Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, to better advise on conservation measures we can take to preserve this in endangered species.
The WWF Coral Triangle Global Initiative has set out to tag adult yellowfin tunas in the waters of Mindoro Occidental, in the Philippines. The site is some 100 km off the western seaboard of Mindoro and is a known area with juvenile tunas but has not been previously studied.