“When we looked back at how management agencies and industry were doing using this tool, the answer was ‘not that great,’” says Geoff York, PBI’s senior director of research and policy. A 2020 study co-authored by York found that FLIR failed to spot 55 percent of polar bear dens. Part of the problem is that the best weather windows for FLIR—which works better during particularly long cold periods—are now fewer and farther between because of climate change.