In 2005, Care for the Wild International (CWI) teamed up with world-renowned polar bear experts, Prof. Ian Stirling and Dr. Nick Lunn, to address the crisis facing polar bears today. Prof. Stirling and Dr Lunn are based at the Canadian Wildlife Service and the University of Alberta. Their research involves the capture of an annual sample of polar bears, of all age and sex classes, in order to determine whether the declining trend in both cub production and body condition is continuing or has stabilised in order to provide timely data to assist in the ongoing, long-term conservation and management of polar bears in western Hudson Bay. In a recent letter to CWI, Nick Lunn said "As a consequence of your support, we have been able to maintain a 27-year research program that has helped the international community not only better understand how climatic warming is affecting polar bears and other components of the Arctic marine ecosystem but has also provided a predictive capability that will be useful in anticipating effects in other areas of the circumpolar Arctic where polar bears live. In May 2006, the World Conservation Union (formerly IUCN) listed the polar bear as Vulnerable in its Red List of Threatened Species. In December 2006, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as Threatened throughout its range under the US Endangered Species Act. In both actions, the scientific evidence provided by our studies was cited as supporting information used in these decisions.”