I am pleased to report that collaborative research undertaken during my Ph.D. at the University of Akron was recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Microstructures (papillae) on the footpads of polar bears are thought to increase traction on snow, yet they have not been studied in detail or compared to those of other bears. In this recent work, we show that polar bear papillae are taller than those of other bears, even when paw size is taken into consideration. Using experiments with 3D-printed models, we show 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 access and read the full paper here or you can read the media coverage by Science News Magazine and phys.org:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/polar-bear-paws-traction-snow-microstructures-friction
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-polar-paw-papillae-traction-ice.html