Congratulations to alumni Nathaniel Orndorf and Austin Garner on their recent publication in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface entitled: Polar bear paw pad surface roughness and its relevance to contact mechanics on snow.
In the study, Orndorf et al. looked at the microstructures (papillae) on the footpads of polar bears, which are thought to increase traction on snow, and compared them to those of other bears. They showed that polar bear papillae are taller than those of other bears, even when paw size is taken into consideration. By using 3D-printed models, they revealed that the taller papillae of polar bear footpads increase traction on snow compared to those of the other species and compensate for the smaller relative footpad size of the polar bear.
You can find the full paper here or you can read the media coverage by Science News Magazine, phys.org, and The University of Akron News:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/polar-bear-paws-traction-snow-microstructures-friction
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-polar-paw-papillae-traction-ice.html