One of my “bucket list” goals of going to the Arctic was to see polar bears (also puffins, walruses other birds, and whales). I got them all, but I didn’t get close enough to a puffin.
This photo series, one or two I showed before at much lower resolution, comprises two of these elements: a polar bear and a whale, identified by our whale experts as a sperm whale (I can’t verify this). Near the northernmost part of our trip, at roughly 83º north latitude (a record for the ship itself and everybody on it), we saw an amazing sight: a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) gobbling down the blubber of a dead sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) on top of an ice floe. So here you see the world’s largest terrestrial predator gnawing on the world’s largest marine predator. It is a rarity, as both animals are scarce, and to see them together raised the hair on my neck. It was so amazing! Here are a few shots:
Don’t ask me how a dead whale got on an ice floe rather than sinking in the sea. This sight alone was, to me, worth the price of the trip. But there was of course a lot more, which I’ll post in the coming weeks. These, though, are my favorite photos. Even an expert polar photographer doesn’t come across situations like this. (Click ’em to enlarge.)
If the resolution leaves a bit to be desired, this was taken with my point-and-shoot Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS60 camera with the lens cranked all the way out to 30X. I highly recommend this camera for travel, as it fits in your pocket but takes a lot better photos than does an iPhone.
More to come.
What a feast for the bear!
Amazing pictures. Those are the shots of a lifetime.
Awe inspiring! I envy you the experience of seeing such a rare event, thank you for sharing these great photos. Wouldn’t it be fun to know how the whale got onto the ice floe, and wouldn’t it be fun to have a whale/bear cam to watch what ensued in the days after your ship sailed away.
I wonder what was going through the whale’s mind before it hit the ground?
and after…
Indeed. I don’t see any sign of the pot of petunias, though.
Ooo – Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!
The whale looks more like it’s floating in its own little pond. Is that a possibility?
I was thinking it came up in a hole in the ice. I don’t know how that works, tho.
Could be that the temp is close enough to 0 that the heat of decomposition in the whale melted a hole in the ice as it floated to the surface.
Pictures are good
It’s as though you entered another world altogether. I feel like I’m in a children’s storybook seeing the polar bear trucking across the ice. Beautiful.
I wonder how the whale died? I used to make field trips up to Utqiaguik (formerly Barrow) AK. The locals are allowed to subsistence hunt Bowhead whales. After butchering the whales they haul the remains out to the end of the point (using a huge forklift) away from the village where the bears (and gulls) feast on them. I have a photo of one of those feasts – would post if I could figure out how.
I expect the majority of on-lookers only have cell phones for this trip. Well, that’s convenient, but I can’t imagine ….
Incredible – wow – how rare is that – on an ice floe?! What a find!
It must have been an amazing thing to witness.