I see no reason to doubt the statement.
Crockford herself says that she is
a different kind of polar bear expert than those that study bears in the field
indicating that she hasn't conducted original research.
In a further blog post, she justifies her relevance as a "polar bear expert" despite not having made scientific contributions in that area:
There’s no doubt that people who do virtually nothing but analyze the results of their field work (e.g. most polar bear biologists) do make a critical contribution to science. However, every field needs “unblindered” people as well – people who continually consider historical perspectives and seek out the distractions of related topics. Every field needs these big-picture thinkers who are capable of pulling together many aspects of scientific knowledge.
I bring just such an essential, big-picture perspective to the issue of polar bear conservation, life history studies, and Arctic ecology. My contributions to polar bear science are vital to the field, even if the data collectors think otherwise. So shame on those who suggest I am unqualified to comment on polar bear research — such lame attempts to silence and discredit me are a ploy to keep polar bear science insular.
[...]
The fact that polar bear biology is such a closed shop virtually guarantees that the only way any critical voices will be heard is via internet publishing, like this blog.
She follows this up with a list of her publications; none of which are both peer reviewed and about polar bears (it's either one or the other).
The publications she lists which are related to polar bears are:
- a self-published map ("Annotated map of ancient polar bear remains of the world")
- 2 online comments on a peer reviewed paper ("Directionality in polar bear hybridization. Comment")
- a book ("Rhythms of Life: Thyroid Hormone and the Origin of Species")
- her Ph.D. dissertation ("polar bear evolution discussed in detail" means it's covered in a 3-page example)
- a contribution to a book ("polar bear evolution discussed" means it's covered in two short paragraphs)
The closest thing to a peer-reviewed publication related to polar bears that she herself lists is:
**Crockford, S.J. 2003. Thyroid rhythm phenotypes and hominid evolution: a new paradigm implicates pulsatile hormone secretion in speciation and adaptation changes. International Journal of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A Vol. 35 (#1, May issue):105-129. http://www.elsevier.com/ [an invited submission; polar bear evolution discussed]
I only have access to the abstract, but the title and the abstract already show that polar bears were not the main object studied for this paper.