Polar Bears on Ice

We had seen bears on both Baffin Island and on Devon Island at some distance, but today we finally found bears on ice.

We spent the morning cruising around the bird cliffs at Prince Leopold Island just off the north east corner of Somerset Island (it’s obvious that Devon Island and Somerset Island shouldn’t be too far apart), and were heading north back across Lancaster Sound towards Beechey Island when the sea ice suddenly started to become thicker (but still well within the capacity of our ice-strengthened hull). This was ideal polar bear spotting territory.

As we scanned the horizon we saw both a solitary male bear, and a female with two very healthy looking cubs. The male sniffed the air, and promptly headed off into the far distance. The female clearly decided that we weren’t a problem (or even interesting) and continued padding slowly across the ice keeping several hundred yards away from us. We stopped and just waited to see what happened. The female with cubs in tow started walking away from us, until finally curiosity got the better of her. Having walked past the ship she looped back and approached the ship from behind. The mass of camera toting polar bear watchers suddenly realised what was happening, and a stampede from the observation decks at the bow to the stern deck followed.

As the photographers reached the back of the ship, the bears approached to within a few tens of metres, posed for pictures for a few moments, and then continued on their way.

You know it has been a good sighting when not only do you see the passengers showing each other the images they’ve just taken, but also the crew and kitchen staff doing the same thing.

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