“…The breadth and topics covered by this research have varied; however, there has been modest focus on health and little is known about disease and health status in polar bears (Fagre et al, unpublished results;Hueffer et al, 2011Hueffer et al, , 2013Letcher et al, 2010;Sonne, 2010;Sonne et al, 2012;Vongraven et al, 2012). Vongraven et al (2012) outlined a circumpolar monitoring framework for polar bears and specifically noted the importance of monitoring population health. Additionally, marine mammals may be effective sentinels to monitor and assess ecosystem health (Aguirre and Tabor, 2004;Bossart, 2011).…”