Louie Kamkookak and his co-authors conducted unique research in their polar bear conservation work: they undertook an Inuit-led non-invasive genomic DNA hair study of polar bears in M’Clintock Channel, Nunavut. This was done in order to determine individual and sex estimates for the population from 2006-09 and to compare their findings to the previous survey. This technique was deemed to be an effective, inexpensive, Inuit-inclusive alternative to “invasive aerial-mark-recapture” methodologies that are costly, and can hurt the animal due to the impact of human contact with it. As well, “these surveys might preserve the invaluable hunting and tracking techniques of Inuit hunters (especially those who no longer actively hunt), nurturing local knowledge of the land and promoting knowledge transfer to youth.” Their investigation concluded that the number of polar bears in the region had increased, and “although genetic sex estimates of matching genotypes are generally in agreement, the estimated sex ratio differs from that previously reported from aerial mark–recapture, which suggests a potential male bias in (their) sampling stations.”