These data are the responses of researchers, managers, community members, and tour guides who live or work in polar bear habitats anywhere within their range to inquiries about the types, frequency, and potential impacts of recreational activities. Respondents answered a series of questions on their background and experience with polar bears and the geographic area in which they are familiar. Respondents then indicated how common specific types of recreations are in the area in which they are familiar and whether various types of potential impacts were perceived or had been observed to occur. Finally, respondents prioritized a list of management actions and research needs.

This dataset includes measures collected on polar bears captured in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, 1981-2017 by the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Data collected include body length, body mass, axillary girth, skull width and tail lengths. Bears were also aged as described in the methods. For some bears, an adipose tissue sample was collected and percent lipid content was measured, percent body fat was measured via bioelectrical impedance analysis, and/or recent feeding behavior was assessed via gut palpitation or blood urea and creatinine levels, all of which are further described in the methods.

These data from satellite radio-collared adult female polar bears captured in the southern Beaufort Sea, 1985-2016 were used for testing the regional, seasonal and decadal efficacy of retrospective polar bear resource selection functions (RSF) developed for the Arctic basin and its peripheral seas (see Durner et al. 2009). The data includes the following: 1) a csv file of locations used to build a 99% minimum convex polygon study area; 2) a csv file of locations, that occurred within the study area, and were used to test RSFs; 3) a csv file of locations used to build seasonal kernel utilization distributions (95% and 50% contours) for periods 1985-1995, 1996-2006, and 2007-2016.

This data set is one table with observations of polar bears located during aerial surveys along the coast and barrier islands of the southern Beaufort Seas during fall, 2010-2013. Survey flights were conducted using A-Star B2 and Bell 206 helicopters at an average altitude of 300 feet AGL and an average speed of 50 miles per hour. Survey crews searched for polar bears using coastal and inland transects and over-flights of all coastal barrier islands.

This data package includes 3 child items with mapping data of polar bear den habitat on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska. Child Item 1: "Data Used to Compare Photo-Interpreted and IfSAR-Derived Maps of Polar Bear Denning Habitat for the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, 2006-2016" Child Item 2: "Polar Bear Maternal Den Habitat on the Coastal Plain of Northern Alaska Between the Colville River and the Alaska/Canada border" Child Item 3: "Mapping Data of Polar Bear Maternal Den Habitat, National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A)"

These are geospatial data that characterize the distribution of polar bear denning habitat in the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. They were generated to compare the efficacy of two different techniques for identifying areas with suitable den habitat: (1) from a previously published study (Durner et al., 2006) that used manual interpretation of aerial photos and (2) from computer interrogation of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR) digital terrain models. Two datasets are included in this data package, they are both vector geospatial datasets of putative denning habitat (one dataset each for the manual photo interpretation data and the computer interpreted IfSAR data). Additionally included are: vector data used for sampling and metadata describing the IfSAR-derived digital terrain model (DTM) tiles used to generate the shapefiles. The IfSAR DTM are available for purchase through Intermap Technologies, Inc. All vector data are provided in both ESRI shapefile and Keyhole Markup Language (KML) formats.

These are geospatial data that characterize the distribution of polar bear denning habitat on the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A). Two datasets are included in this data package, they are both vector geospatial datasets of putative denning habitat (one set each for the western and eastern portion of the NPR-A). Each vector dataset is provided in both ESRI shapefile and Keyhole Markup Language (KML) formats. Denning habitat was estimated from computer interrogation of digital terrain models (DTM) derived from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR) imagery collected by sensors mounted on fix-wing aircraft. Den habitat is defined as abrupt landscape features (e.g., coastal and riverbanks, lake shores) that are likely to accumulate snow to a depth sufficient for polar bears to build a maternal den (i.e., > 1 meter deep).

This dataset is one table with time-linked behavior data derived from video camera collars on polar bears on land near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Eighteen polar bears were equipped with video-camera collars (Vertex Plus collar with camera option, Vectronic Aerospace GmbH, Berlin, Germany) for 19 - 23 days in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

This data package includes 5 child items with data from 9 female polar bears without dependent young in the southern Beaufort Sea in April 2014-2016. Child Item 1: "Doubly-labeled Water, Deuterium Dilution, Body Mass, and Blood Biochemistry Data from Female Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Southern Beaufort Sea by the USGS in April 2014-2016" Child Item 2: "Resting Metabolic Rates of a Captive Adult Female Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) at the San Diego Zoo" Child Item 3: "Behavior Data from Female Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) Instrumented in the Southern Beaufort Sea with Video Camera Collars by the USGS in April 2014-2016" Child Item 4: "Archival Logger Data from Female Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) of the Southern Beaufort Sea by the USGS, April 2014-2016" Child Item 5: "GPS Location Data from Female Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) Instrumented in the Southern Beaufort Sea with Video Camera Collars equipped with Satellite-linked GPS Receivers by the USGS in April 2014-2016"

These data are the raw location data collected from satellite radio-collars fitted on adult female polar bears in the Chukchi Sea, between 1985-1996. The collars were worn by adult female polar bears ranging within the Chukchi Sea subpopulation boundaries as identified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Polar Bear Specialist Group. Agros collars were programmed to transmit for 8 hours centered on 0:00 UTC once every three days. Thus, for two consecutive days the Agros collar did not transmit location data.