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Polar Bears

I'm back from a trip round the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago so I'll be uploading pictures from there for a while. These Polar Bears were photographed in the pack ice north of Spitsbergen which is where most Arctic seals breed and the natural habitat of Polar Bears. When we arrived one male bear was feeding on what appeared to be a dead Walrus. It had no skin but was huge, much longer than the Polar Bears. Two more bears arrived and muscled in on the food. They growled loudly at each other but there was no real aggression and all three bears enjoyed a feed. Walrus prey is unusual as Polar Bears cannot tackle an adult Walrus so I wondered if they found a dead one. These bears are both males but the third bear was a female. Incidentally this was above 80 ° North, so if you imagine the world as a clock face with the North Pole at midnight, we were less than two minutes to midnight.

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Uploaded on July 17, 2023
Taken on July 9, 2023