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Any hardship is offset by the chance to work with mammals as charismatic as they are inaccessible. "This is as good as it gets," says Garner. "I'm surprised people would pay me to do this." Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service sums up the admiration felt by most of the bears' scientific followers: "The polar bear is the Arctic incarnate. When you watch one sauntering across the ice and it's 30 below, he looks as comfortable as someone in a pair of shorts on the beach in Hawaii."