undercover polar bears

 scientists  cool techonlogy  to pap on these animals. In  northern Alaska a female polar bear curls up in her  den. She's  warm despite the frigid temperature outside. Right now  it's  just  her in the shelter but in couple of weeks  she'll  give  brith to cubs. The family will then ride out the rest of the winter in their dene. Suddenly a small plane flies overhead  recording video  of the frozen ground. Even though the soon to be mom is tucked under a few feet of snow the images taken by under a few feet os snow the images taken by the phone's cameras reveal her presence. because polar bar are hard to spot throughout the winter experts have com up with surprising ways to gather information on these elusive and vulnerable  animals. using new technology  like this plane scientists can learn more about  polar bears and figure out  how protect them. Heat wave how do the plane's video cameras spot this undercover  animal. The gadgets are designed with special  a male polar bear  can weigh as much as six men. technology  that allows  them to pick up ground  temperature. A polar bear in a deb nuts heat that is transferred to  surface of the snow  biologist  Craig perm say. when a plane flies overhead its cameras sense that the spot  has a slightly warmer temperature than it's surrounding scientists like perm rely on these gadget to help them track down dens. Once they know the location of a den researches can prevent people  from accidentally disturbing the shelter by building in or driving  through the area drone on flying drones with camera are also being used on  these den finding missions todd Brinkman  a researcher  with  the university of Alaska if fairbanks is testing  drone called the ptarmigan (named after the arctic bird) to see if can find polar bear dens. Once to drone is ready it may help scientists protect the dens furry inhabitants more quickly using tech to protect the long term goal for using these  gadgets to gather as much information  as possible about  polar bears. says Elisabeth Kruger a program officer for the world wide fund new technology is helping us protect these animal  as much as possible without getting in their way. a mother hangs out with her cub. polar bear cubs stay with their  mothers for about two years. a newborn polar bear cub is about  the size of a guinea pig. a polar bear's paw can measure a much as 12 inches across. from called book national  geographic  kids.