Polar bear hunting on sea ice

Polar bear hunting on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oZFYhZ

The wandering bear

Called pisugtooq, the great wanderer, by the polar Eskimos of NW Greenland, the polar bear has no territory but instead a vast range through which it wanders tirelessly. This behavior is necessitated by the shifting sea ice and changing ocean productivity on which is depends, but it has developed into an animal with seemingly no limits as to where it is willing to go.

Nobody really knows what drives this seemingly deliberate and intent ceaseless travel, how they know where they are or how they know where they are going. A bear in Svalbard may wonder within a few hundred square kilometres for several months before walking to Franz Josef Land and then halfway to the North Pole, covering thousands of miles. Bears have been seen in such unlikely spots as the summit of Mt Newton in Svalbard (an altitude of 6600ft!) or 30 miles inland on the Greenland ice cap and we have no real idea what they are doing there, though we may speculate. The females of the Alaskan population den on shifting sea ice and emerge from their dens a significant distance from where they dug in months before. Despite this, they converge on their traditional feeding areas with unerring and uncanny accuracy no matter where they start.

The bear pictured here was encountered on sea ice within a mile of the island of Storoya in the east of the Svalbard archipelago. Fearlessly curious as to what we were, it quickly resumed its travel westward when we slowly retreated.

Like every sighting, this bear was full of mystery. Where did it come from? Where is it going with such intent? And with this mystery comes an admiration for an animal so incredibly at home in its environment, able to cover the difficult and shifting terrain with ease and comfort. Its motion is assured, almost leisurely and proprietorial; early whalers apparently nicknamed it ‘the farmer’ because of its easy stride.

This isn’t an animal that’s surviving; it’s a robust and resourceful creature ‘choosing’ to remain, and roam endlessly, in the environment in which it feels most at home.

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Polar bear reflection

Polar bear reflection; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oYJSk8

Polar bear hunting on sea ice

Polar bear hunting on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oXpM1F

Polar bear hunting on sea ice

Polar bear hunting on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oEjUoh

Polar bear hunting on sea ice

Polar bear hunting on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole in the far east of the Svalbard archipelago. http://flic.kr/p/oDyhxW

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oCzjTd

Polar bear closeup

Polar bear closeup; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oByHRz

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oSV8HW

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oS17JR

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oQUz9i

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oQ6VB6

Polar bear jumping over a lead For an animal that probably...

Polar bear jumping over a lead

For an animal that probably weighs 700-800lbs it’s pretty sprightly!

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Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice just 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oxaU9r

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting in sea ice 600 miles from the north pole. http://flic.kr/p/oLxBky

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

This bear is travelling and hunting in the way polar bears are supposed to. Over a hundred miles from land, with nothing but floating ice filling the ocean it lives a complete life, taking advantage of the abundant calories available in the blubber of Harp, Ringed, Hooded and Bearded seals. 

It can be intuitive to see these animals as visitors in this environment, but it is very much their home. A bear tagged with a GPS transmitter recently in Svalbard spent two continuous days swimming on a journey to Franz Josef Land and beyond. So well insulated are they that they can stop and sleep almost anywhere, the moment the whim takes them. Eating, sleeping and travelling entirely at sea ,with very few limits on where they can go, they are paragons of self-sufficiency.

Equally at home walking on sea ice, swimming in the water or clambering over icebergs, they are classified as marine mammals in many countries. Everything they need can be found on the ice, even denning sites in the case of the subpopulation north of Alaska.

However, closely related to Brown bears, they remain extremely adaptable and are willing and able to come ashore in order to feed, den or just wait for the expanding ice of winter to come back so that they can go home again.

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A bear travelling and hunting on sea ice 600 miles from the North Pole http://flic.kr/p/ov3QQ1

Polar bear hunting on ice

Polar bear hunting on ice; A bear hunts approximately 600NM from the north pole, far out in the Arctic Ocean. http://flic.kr/p/oLEBwr

Polar bear travelling on sea ice

Polar bear travelling on sea ice; A polar bear comes to investigate the ship while travelling and hunting through the great northern pack. http://flic.kr/p/otpDXQ

Polar bear on sea ice

Polar bear on sea ice; A curious polar bear comes to investigate our Zodiac while we explore around the island of Storoya. http://flic.kr/p/oEwQgk

Polar bear on an iceberg

Polar bear on an iceberg; Polar bear sniffing the air on an iceberg at a glacier face in Hornsund, Svalbard http://flic.kr/p/onfSGG

Polar bear on sea ice

Polar bear on sea ice; A curious polar bear comes to the ship while travelling through sea ice 600 NM from the North Pole. http://flic.kr/p/oB1QyJ

Polar bear on sea ice

Polar bear on sea ice; A curious polar bear comes to the ship while travelling through sea ice 600 NM from the North Pole. http://flic.kr/p/oAkTTY

Polar bear climbs on a ship

Polar bear climbs on a ship; This bear came to the ship while travelling through sea ice approximately 500 NM from the North Pole, north of the Svalbard Archipelago. http://flic.kr/p/ok9WUn

Polar bear on sea ice

Polar bear on sea ice; A curious polar bear comes to the ship while travelling through sea ice 600 NM from the North Pole. http://flic.kr/p/oBbLju