Climate Change Interviews

Interview with Dr. Steven Amstrup, Chief Scientist for Polar Bears International

February 17, 2020

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Today I am joined by Dr. Steven Amstrup, Chief Scientist for Polar Bears International. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Before joining PBI, Amstrup was a research wildlife biologist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center, Anchorage AK., where he led polar bear research in Alaska for 30 years. He earned a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Washington, an M.S. in Wildlife Management from the University of Idaho, and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Amstrup led research on all aspects of polar bear ecology in the Beaufort Sea between 1980 and 2010. He is a past chairman of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group and has been an active member of the group since 1980. His interests include distribution and movement patterns as well as population dynamics of wildlife, and how information on those topics can be used to assure wise stewardship. He is particularly interested in how science can help to reconcile the ever-enlarging human footprint on our environment with the needs of other species for that same environment. Prior work experiences include studies of black bears in central Idaho and pronghorns and grouse in Wyoming.

Amstrup has authored or coauthored over 150 peer-reviewed articles on movements, distribution and population dynamics of large mammals, and is the senior editor of a recent text on population estimation methods. In 2007, Amstrup led a USGS research team in production of 9 reports that were instrumental in convincing the U.S. Secretary of Interior polar bears should be declared threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Most recently Dr. Amstrup led an effort showing polar bears are not unavoidably doomed. In the December 2010 issue of Nature, he and his coauthors showed that preserving polar bears is all about controlling man-caused temperature rise. In 2012, Amstrup was selected as recipient of the Indianapolis Prize and a Bambi Award for his efforts in animal conservation.

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