I did a trip to Svalbard in the arctic last week and was able to get close to two polar bears. All shots are made from a small zodiac.
It is summer at svalbard now so that means it is not so much snow and ice left in many places.
Here´s a polar bear waking up and performing some morning yoga (sorry if too many pictures...)
The word "epic" comes to mind here. I love all of them but the last seven combined are wonderful. And all of them are wonderful to look at individually. Great job!
Beautiful set of images. You were lucky, they both have a nice and clean fur. The first one is on the skinny side, hope he/she is able to fatten up during the summer. The second one seems to be in better shape, it's all that yoga, I guess ;-)
Thanks for sharing.
Samureye wrote:
The first one is on the skinny side, hope he/she is able to fatten up during the summer.
Unfortunately I think they have most trouble getting food during summer (less ice = harder to catch seals)...
The bear was eating bird eggs when I followed him/her.
Stefan, wonderful images!! Well done. I ENVY your images as we were skunked on our trip. I was in Svalbard May 15-26 on a small boat (18 people) for ski touring. We remained on the western side of the archipelago and entered many fjords, traveling as far as an area north of Ny Aeslund then back to Longyearbyen from where we started our journey. The captain stated that pack ice this year is virtually absent on the western and southern edge of Svalbard (a statement I would definitely agree with) and, as a result, there were no bears at all as they had no hunting platforms from which to hunt seals. We learned in Longyearbyen that most of the bears were in the North or Eastern areas of Svalbard this year.
Thank you all for your comments!
I am happy that you appreciate the pictures!
angel manguel wrote:
Stefan, wonderful images!! Well done. I ENVY your images as we were skunked on our trip. I was in Svalbard May 15-26 on a small boat (18 people) for ski touring. We remained on the western side of the archipelago and entered many fjords, traveling as far as an area north of Ny Aeslund then back to Longyearbyen from where we started our journey. The captain stated that pack ice this year is virtually absent on the western and southern edge of Svalbard (a statement I would definitely agree with) and, as a result, there were no bears at all as they had no hunting platforms from which to hunt seals. We learned in Longyearbyen that most of the bears were in the North or Eastern areas of Svalbard this year.
Sorry that you did not see any bears... Hope the skiing was great though! (It must be very exhausting to first climb the mountain and then ski in difficult terrain..?.. I know that I would not dare to... )
Despite there are around 3000 bears at svalbard it can be a real lottery to see and come close to one. The bears in the photos was found on the north-west part. We did see 5 more bears on the pack ice in north east part but they were to far away and our sailing boat could not go through the ice without the risk of being stuck.
Jun 21, 2016 at 02:35 AM
Herb Houghton Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
(sorry if too many pictures...)
