Ian stirlings polar bears the natural history of a threatened species is considered by many to be the seminal reference book on polar bears although the product description and the copyright dates rather deceptively do not reflect this this book published in 2010 is not an entirely new text but rather is an updated version of stirlings . Yet its survival is now threatened by global warming renowned polar bear scientist ian stirling compresses 40 years of research on these iconic mammals into a new and comprehensive natural history in accessible language he explains their evolution life history behaviour how they are researched and the current threat to their very existence. Polar bears the natural history of a threatened species by ian stirling jon aars norwegian polar institute fram centre tromso 9296 norway e mail jonaarsnpolarno. Polar bears the natural history of a threatened species summarizes decades of research findings on polar bears it thoroughly informs on the current population on physiology on hunting and reproductive behavior on prey animals and on conservation measures and changing environmental conditions