During the time she delivered lectures to elementary school students, Crockford says she was continually โastonished to learn that every single teacher believed that only a few hundred to a few thousand polar bears were left.โ She feels duty bound as a scientist to speak up, to point out that the global population is officially estimated to be in the range of 22,000 to 31,000 and may be much higher. โI talk to groups about the adaptive features of polar bears that allow them to survive changes in their Arctic habitat,โ she says.
