Southern Hinlopen Strait, Nordaustlandet
Today sailing north to the pack ice in the area of southeastern Hinlopen Strait, Svalbard lived up to its reputation as the land of the ice bear.
We began our encounters at 0500 hours and as the ice cover increased and the floe sizes became larger we were given an exceptionally detailed look at the polar bear population's age structure in the summer sea ice of this area. Fifteen bears were seen in the short and hectic morning before we reached the Nordaustlandet ice cap.
In one small area of ice floes we found two separate two and a half year-old cubs which were apparently on their own. Both approached the ship and showed a strong interest in the morning breakfast smells that were emanating from the galley vents. Later we were approached by a healthy adult female whose nipples were still evident. Conjecture is that she might have been the mother of the two cubs, which were just now becoming independent and beginning life on their own.
Shortly after, the sighting of four bears together on a floe brought the whole ship to a renewed peak of interest. Here was the rare occurrence of triplets which in Svalbard is seldom seen. More interesting is that these were one and a half year-old cubs all healthy albeit of noticeable different sizes not unexpected in such large ursid litters.
More bears as we continued, but memorable was one old man of a bear which slowly approached us to lay down 100 meters from the bow of the ship. As he moved you could see that his once massive body now had the bony but still powerful look of a tired old fighter. This was an old patriarch still coping with the challenges of life in his arctic kingdom.
Today sailing north to the pack ice in the area of southeastern Hinlopen Strait, Svalbard lived up to its reputation as the land of the ice bear.
We began our encounters at 0500 hours and as the ice cover increased and the floe sizes became larger we were given an exceptionally detailed look at the polar bear population's age structure in the summer sea ice of this area. Fifteen bears were seen in the short and hectic morning before we reached the Nordaustlandet ice cap.
In one small area of ice floes we found two separate two and a half year-old cubs which were apparently on their own. Both approached the ship and showed a strong interest in the morning breakfast smells that were emanating from the galley vents. Later we were approached by a healthy adult female whose nipples were still evident. Conjecture is that she might have been the mother of the two cubs, which were just now becoming independent and beginning life on their own.
Shortly after, the sighting of four bears together on a floe brought the whole ship to a renewed peak of interest. Here was the rare occurrence of triplets which in Svalbard is seldom seen. More interesting is that these were one and a half year-old cubs all healthy albeit of noticeable different sizes not unexpected in such large ursid litters.
More bears as we continued, but memorable was one old man of a bear which slowly approached us to lay down 100 meters from the bow of the ship. As he moved you could see that his once massive body now had the bony but still powerful look of a tired old fighter. This was an old patriarch still coping with the challenges of life in his arctic kingdom.
