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Ian Stirling (biologist)

Ian Grote Stirling OC FRSC (September 26, 1941 – May 14, 2024)^[2][3] was a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada and an adjunct professor in the University of Alberta Department of Biological Sciences.^[4][5] His research has focused mostly on Arctic and Antarctic zoology and ecology, and he was one of the world's top authorities on polar bears.^[6]

Stirling authored five non-technical books and more than 250 articles published in peer-reviewed science journals.^[4] Over the course of his career, and well into his retirement from Environment Canada in 2007, when he became a scientist emeritus, he wrote and spoke extensively about the danger posed to polar bears by global warming.^[7]

Ian Stirling was born to Andrew and Margaret Stirling on September 26, 1941 in Zambia, where his father worked as a mining engineer. They returned to Canada after the Second World War, settling in the mining town of Kimberley, British Columbia.^[2] He completed his B.Sc. at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1963, and his M.Sc. in zoology at UBC in 1965, where he met his spouse, Stella.^[2]

For his M.Sc. thesis, Stirling studied captive blue grouse under James F. Bendell.^[8] In 1968, Stirling received his doctorate from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand having done his field work on the Weddell seal from Scott BaseinAntarctica, followed by post-doctoral research on South Australian fur seals at the University of Adelaide in Australia.^[9] His three children were born in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, respectively.^[2]

From 1970 to 2007, Stirling was employed as a research scientist for the Canadian Wildlife Service.^[4] His research focussed on polar bear biology and ecology, with his most notable work being a long-term study of polar bears in western Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba. He was among the first to draw attention to the potential impacts of climate change on polar bears.^[10] He was also an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta for more than 30 years, after settling in Edmonton in 1972.^[2] Stirling retired in 2007.

Stirling has served as a member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the Marine Mammal Commission, and he was the first Canadian to be elected president of the Society for Marine Mammalogy.^[11] He was a long-standing member of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group and was also a scientific advisor to Polar Bears International.^[12]

Stirling was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2019. The illness advanced to leukemia in 2023 and he died of effects of cancer in 2024, at age 82.^[13]

• Ian McTaggart-Cowan Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian branch of The Wildlife Society (2021)
• Polar Bear Conservation Award of the Polar Bear Range States of the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears (2020)^[14]
• Polar Bears International Ice Bear Lifetime Achievement Award (2019)^[12]
• Weston Family Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Northern Research (2015)^[15]
• Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award (2013)^[16][4]
• Honorary Doctorate, D.Sc., University of British Columbia (2013)^[17]
• Honorary Doctorate, D. Sc., University of Alberta (2013)^[18]
• National Wildlife Federation (US), National Conservation Achievement Award in The Special Achievement Category (2009)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2007)
• Northern Science Award, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (2002)^[19]
• Officer of the Order of Canada (2000)^[20]

• Stirling I (1997) The importance of polynyas, ice edges, and leads to marine mammals and birds. Journal of Marine Systems 10, 9–21.
• Stirling I, Lunn NJ, Iacozza J (1999) Long-term trends in the population ecology of polar bears in western Hudson Bay in relation to climatic change. Arctic 52, 294–306.
• Stirling I, Parkinson CL (2006) Possible effects of climate warming on selected populations of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Canadian Arctic. Arctic 59, 261–275.
• Stirling I, Derocher AE (2012) Effects of climate warming on polar bears: a review of the evidence. Global Change Biology 18, 2694–2706. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02753.x

• Stirling, I. (1988). Polar bears. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472101009
• Stirling, I. (1992). Bears. United States: Sierra Club Books for Children. ISBN 9780871564412. IRA Teachers' Choice. NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children
• Stirling, I (ed). (1993) Bears: Majestic Creatures of the Wild. United Kingdom: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780002199865
• Stirling, I (2011) Polar Bears: The Natural History of a Threatened Species. Fitzhenry and Whiteside. Markham, ON. 334 pp. ISBN 978-1554551552

• University of Alberta bio
• Environment Canada bio
• Polar Bears International bio