Bears were high on the list for this trip, and you can never be sure you are going to find them, but its what makes a trip here to Svalabard so wonderful. With a Captain who just delights in finding bears on the ice, we were so lucky. Twenty-one bear sightings in all and to see these creatures in their natural habitat makes it even more special.
Our first bear sighting, a lone bear walking along the shore. We watched this one from the zodiac. He was wearing a GPS collar, part of the tracking program up here. The only bear we sighted in the program.
Our second bear, we nicknamed “Salad Bear”. Sadly eating green grass on the side of a hill. Really not the food to keep her alive till the ice comes back.
The wonderful sight of a mother bear on the ice with two babies we will always remember. We saw two of these threesomes.
These babies were so cute as they jumped across the ice. Baby 1
Baby 2
Ooops, didn’t quite make it
They continued to roll on their backs, to cool off
This was one of my best moments. After entertaining us for quite some time,mother bear turns off and takes her cubs off into the distance to do what bears do best. And after being woken by the captain at 2.am we also went back to bed.
One sad moment, we came across a recent kill. Actually the bear was still eating as the ship came out of the fog. We know the bears have got to live, but sadly another seal has died. One thing most noticeable, very few seals lying on the ice. No doubt they have learnt that to survive here they have to keep themselves hidden from the bears.
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