Name a polar bear and follow her real journey

A polar bear as a die-cut album sticker (species illustration).

Name a polar bear — and follow her real journey across the Beaufort Sea

€19,90

Certificate + 30-day journey, delivered in a minute

The polar bear's name

Choose it now Let them choose it

Up to 20 letters. You will see it on the map and on the certificate.

They give her a name the first time they open the journey.

Who is it for?Their first name and your message, optional

Recipient's first name

Your message (optional)

A real journey recorded in 2004, replayed one day at a time. Not live tracking.

Delivery in 3–5 days with tracking.

Give a name to a real polar bear and follow, day by day, her 1,200 km route across the Beaufort Sea, from Canadian waters to the sea off Alaska, recorded by scientists.

A new day every evening for 30 days. Every day already opened stays visible.

What arrives and when

Digital
A link and a printable PDF certificate, by email in a minute. Or on the date you choose, with your message.
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The journey
It starts when the recipient opens it: one new day of the route every day for 30 days. Every day already unlocked stays visible. Access for 12 months.

Day 1 / 30

recorded 1 October 2004

Far from the coast

October 2004, the Beaufort Sea, north of Canada. An adult female polar bear is about 108 km from Cape Kellett, on Banks Island. She has carried a satellite collar since April, when she was captured with her young; the data can't tell us whether they are still together. The collar records where she is, not how she got there: on ice or in the water, we can't know. The scientists call her 38_GPS. For you, she is Nanuq.

The real first chapter of this journey, shown with the sample name Nanuq.

The story of this journey

In October 2004 an adult female polar bear was far out in the Beaufort Sea, north of Canada, carrying the satellite collar that US Geological Survey scientists had fitted that spring, when they captured her with her young. In 30 days her daily positions trace 1,200 km: west, far from the coast, across the 141st meridian (the line of the Alaska-Yukon border), north to about 73°, then south again, to about 43 km from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Every point on your 30-day map is a real position, recorded on that day.

days: 30
km on the map: 1200
km from the start: 699
recorded in: 2004

Where this journey comes from

Data: Pagano AM, Douglas DC, Durner GM, Atwood TC (2018), Locations Collected 1985-2015 from Female Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) with Dependent Young Instrumented in the Southern Beaufort Sea with Satellite-linked Transmitters by the USGS, U.S. Geological Survey, doi 10.5066/F7RV0MK4, licence CC0. Scientific ID: 38_GPS.

The name you choose is a gift name: the scientists know this bear as 38_GPS, and other people may follow the same journey under other names.

The whole journey +€9,90

201 days and 3,403 km on the map, up to 732 km from the start and through the late winter off Herschel Island. 164 days with a recorded position, 37 estimated and drawn as a dotted line.

See the whole journey

Questions

No. It's a real journey recorded by scientists (2018 for the turtle, 2019 for the penguin, 2008 for the elephant, 2004 for the polar bear), replayed for you one day at a time. Every recorded point is real; estimated days are marked and drawn with a dotted line.

We join one recorded position per day with a straight line, the same line you see on your map. Her real path was longer: all her recorded positions in these 30 days add up to at least 1,320 km.

No one owns a wild animal. The name is a gift name for the journey: it appears on your certificate and on your map. Other people may follow the same journey with other names.

We don't know. The scientists say she had young with her when she was captured, in spring 2004; the data doesn't say whether they were still together in October.

We can't tell. The collar records where she is, not how she got there, and sea ice drifts, so it may have carried her part of the way.

We don't know. The recording stops in April 2005, and the data doesn't say what came after.

MapMyPet is a gift shop, not a charity: your purchase pays for the gift. The data comes from open scientific studies, credited on every page.

When the recipient opens it. A gift opened at Christmas starts at Christmas, from day 1.

No: a link and a browser. The certificate can be printed.

12 months from activation; the certificate is yours to keep.