Polar bears are one of the most majestic, yet fearsome animals on the planet. The largest living species of bear and the largest land carnivore, the polar bear is closely related to the brown bear. So much so, in fact, the two species can interbreed. They live in the Arctic and rely on the marine ecosystem to survive. Most of the year, they reside on sea ice, but migrate to land once that ice melts in warmer months. Polar bears typically hunt other animals in their arctic habitat like seals. On rare occasions, they hunt walruses and beluga whales.
With its intimidating build, sharp teeth, and oversized paws, these predators fit perfectly into their frozen environment. Unfortunately, climate change has wrought severe changes to habitats like the Arctic. As temperatures warm, and ice melts, polar bear populations are decreasing, as they need the sea ice to hunt and survive. Once thriving, polar bears have become a vulnerable species with just an estimated 22,000 to 31,000 individuals left.
Nevertheless, even a dangerous predator needs its advocates. Enter Polar Bears International, the only conservation organization devoted solely to wild polar bears. A-Z Animals got a chance to sit down with Amy Cutting, Polar Bears International’s Vice President of Conservation, to learn about the organization, the work it does, the impact it’s made, and how people can get involved in saving this powerful animal.
Meet Amy Cutting
A zoo professional for decades, Amy Cutting worked intimately with polar bears before she ever heard of Polar Bears International. Part of her job was managing zoo keepers, which led to a focus on utilizing polar bears in captivity to inform conservation science. As such, she worked with Polar Bears International (PBI) on several collaborative research projects. “It was really kind of fun for them to answer some questions about polar bears that we can’t answer in the wild,” Cutting shares.

Amy Cutting is Polar Bears International’s Vice President of Conservation.
©Jenny Wong / Polar Bears International
Cutting spent the majority of her career at the Oregon Zoo, which acts as one of PBI’s Arctic Ambassador Centers. As Cutting puts it, “PBI has a big tent and is always interested in innovative approaches to things.” This resulted in a long partnership between Cutting, PBI, and USGS, collaborating on polar bear research projects in energetics and nutritional ecology, as well as increasing capacity for the animal at zoos and aquariums. This long-term volunteer role eventually landed her the gig of her dreams at Polar Bears International in 2022. “I tell people I was like the groupie that got asked to join the band. It was pretty awesome,” Cutting says. “So I feel very, very lucky to be a part of things. I really love the spirit of PBI.”
About Polar Bears International
Churchill, Manitoba may be a mere blip on the human map, but it’s an incredibly important waypoint for polar bears. Each year, hundreds of them arrive on its frosty shores to wait for sea ice to return to the surrounding Hudson Bay. This makes a prime spot to witness and study polar bears in their natural habitat. Some 40 years ago, people realized they should celebrate the animal. “There was just a group of wildlife enthusiasts and photographers that found out about this opportunity to go out on an early version of the Tundra Buggy to do polar bear photography, Cutting explains. “They decided that they should take their passion for the polar bear and turn it into a conservation organization.”

Polar Bears International is the only non-profit working to secure the future of these majestic creatures.
©Erinn Hermsen / Polar Bear International
Originally called Polar Bears Alive, the organization sought to raise awareness about the animal. In the early 1990s, however, something shifted. The once-informal organization realized that climate change was becoming a serious threat to polar bear populations, so it got serious. “It went from sort of being a group of polar bear fans and enthusiasts that wanted to raise awareness to a conservation organization that really wanted to get serious about trying to change the polar bear’s future,” Cutting says.
Fast-forward to the current year and Polar Bears International is the only non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the future of polar bears and protecting their sea ice habitat. PBI has 20 full-time employees including scientists, conservationists, support staff, and volunteers. Though it’s headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, with another point of focus in Churchill, Manitoba, PBI’s work spreads across the globe from Russia to Alaska.
A Growing Threat
No matter how you debate the finer points, climate change is the overarching concern of Polar Bears International. As Cutting puts it, by 2100, as much as two-thirds of the already dwindling population will be gone. To combat this seemingly insurmountable threat, PBI adopts a two-pronged approach: Long-term, climate change rules the conversation. In the short term, however, PBI enacts strategies to encourage healthy populations. The prevailing questions for the organization are: What are some ways we can help people live safely with them? And how can we encourage the animal’s reproduction?

Encouraging reproduction is a crucial component in saving the species from extinction. Here, a mother and her cub explore the Churchill, Manitoba wild.
©BJ Kirschhoffer / Polar Bears International
To answer these questions PBI studies industrial disturbance and conflict with people. Many of the organization’s initiatives center around coexistence efforts to help people live safely with polar bears without requiring lethal removal. But Polar Bears International is, first and foremost, a science-based organization. As such, it has research programs on the ground that study maternal polar bear dens and the behavior of mother and cub.
This gives PBI not only a sense of mating and rearing habits, but also helps it understand the dynamics and interplay between bear, human, and environment. “Very few of the 20 sub-populations can be closely studied,” explains Cutting. “But the ones that can be, if we really dig in there and understand the mechanisms of change and the relationship with the sea ice, we can make some inferences about what’s happening with other populations in the world and a warming Arctic.”
Creative Uses of Technology
Understanding the movement, habits, and inclinations of polar bears is not easy. They are dangerous predators and live in some of the most unwelcoming environments on Earth. To study polar bears in their natural habitat without interrupting their lives, much less find them underneath the snow, Polar Bears International makes creative use of technology.
First, there is a process of deduction. Polar bears are likely to select a certain type of topography for their home. This only gets researchers so far, however, as the mother and cubs hide under the snow. To combat this problem, people began experimenting with detection methods in the early 2000s, including dogs, forward-looking infrared, and other types of technologies that could detect heat signatures. This only took the spotting process so far. Plus, industrial activity would often force a mother out of her den, abandoning her cubs or bringing them out in the open too early. “In some parts of the Arctic, there is industrial activity going on,” Cutting says. “We think of it as sort of this untouched wilderness, but there are places where there is oil drilling and other kinds of activity like ice roads being laid down.”
It’s critical that detection methods don’t disturb mother bears. As such, PBI has begun working with various kinds of radar to spot bears burrowed in the snow including ground-penetrating radar and ultra-wide-band radar. “We are looking at identifying different kinds of tools that might be able to better detect … more reliably detect polar bears under the snow,” Cutting says.

It’s imperative the polar bear detection methods don’t disturb the mother and her cubs.
©Erinn Hermsen / Polar Bear International
Impact, Outreach, and the Future
As Cutting puts it, the true superpower of Polar Bears International is partnerships. Exploring the Arctic environment means interfacing with other groups in the area like oil companies, at least in the early days before their contribution to climate change made collaboration untenable and unethical. Plus, much of PBI’s detection technology comes from other arenas like archeology, and even the military. This requires a powerful network of partners and adopting their techniques for polar bear conservation. “We are often connecting with them and trying to partner to trial those technologies for this purpose,” Cutting says. “We are always open to different kinds of tools and technologies that can be leveraged in different ways for conservation.”
Polar Bears International has made great strides, but the work is not without its challenges. It’s hard for a small, if influential organization to tackle a global crisis like climate change. Furthermore, PBI’s advocacy exists in a more abstract realm of outreach. “I think one of our challenges sometimes is measuring our impact because we are working in this somewhat esoteric area of hearts and minds,” Cutting says. How do we measure how our messages are resonating and then, in turn, impacting behavior change?”
PBI’s proxy partnerships with zoos and its impressive media outreach help amplify its message. It also keeps polar bears and climate at the forefront of people’s minds when they are thinking about voting and about the influence they have in their own community. Besides features in news giants like Reuters, NPR, and NBC News, PBI had 3,525 unique media mentions in 2023 alone. As for the future, Cutting thinks Polar Bears International is on the right track. With climate change only worsening, however, its mission comes with a greater sense of urgency.
What You Can Do to Help
The survival of polar bears is inexorably linked with climate change, but it’s such a large global issue that many people feel powerless to change it. As such, Cutting recommends people broaden their perspective, work together, and use that as fuel to power progress. Everyone is connected to a system, and making small but persistent changes to that system can bring about measurable change.

Like many species, habitat loss due to climate change puts polar bears at risk of extinction.
©Erinn Hermsen / Polar Bear International
Everything from making automated heating and electronic systems more sustainable to adopting a more vegetarian-based diet can have a trickle-down effect on the survival of these animals. Even simple conversations can go a long way in influencing the outcome of climate-oriented legislation. “That’s really how policy change happens … when people articulate their concerns and what they want to see happen,” says Cutting, adding, “Making it a kitchen table issue turns it into a policy priority.”
In honor of the upcoming International Polar Bear Day on February 27th, which PBI has made a focus of its annual awareness efforts, Cutting encourages people to contribute to the organization’s efforts. “If they are able, we encourage people to contribute to our efforts to protect moms and cubs, including detection and monitoring,” Cutting says. “We have a great system where you can fill out a really quick little survey about what your specific interests are.“
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