03 June 2004 - 4:00 am

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 87

June 3, 2004 Thursday
4:00 AM Alaska time

It is early morning in what has already been an exciting day. Between 1:30 AM and 3:15 AM a very curious polar bear decided science equipment deployed on the ice floe would make great chew toys. We watched in worried fascination, divided between concerns for the equipment and the pure pleasure of seeing a polar bear play.

The bear lumbered over to a large, soft red buoy about 100 yards from the back of the ship and bit it, carried the buoy in its mouth and tried walking away. Fortunately, the buoy was attached to a sediment trap line that was in the water so the bear was unable to carry it very far. It tried several times, pulling and “playing tug-of-war” with the buoy. The bear appeared to give up the fight and walk away. But then it spotted a tripod and went to investigate. After tipping over the tripod and looking into the ice core hole, it seemed bored and went back to the buoy. The bear bounced on the buoy and rolled over on its back batting it around. The bear continued chewing on the buoy until it spotted the smaller buoys floating at the ice floe edge. It picked up the smaller, hard plastic buoys and tried playing them. However, when it got too close to the unstable edge of snow, the buoys and bear’s nose hit the water.

It was too funny not to laugh out loud, but still we were worried that the equipment would be lost. So we tried frightening the bear away by banging on the ship, and blowing the ship’s whistle and air horns, but the bear paid no attention. We tried shooting warning flares into the air. The bear looked up and followed the flare as the red smoke traveled over its head. It even ran after the glowing flare. It seemed we had found success. But, our moment of victory was brief. As soon as the flare hit the ground, the bear lost interest and came back to the science equipment. We shot another flare, and again the bear seemed curious, but only for as long as the flare was in the air. As no human life was in danger, we did not use any further tactics to relocate the bear. Instead we continued watching as it dragged, chewed, tasted, shredded and “enjoyed” the science equipment. We will find out the extent of damage the equipment when it is pulled off the floe tomorrow.

The polar bear seemed to have a great time playing with one of the science buoys deployed on an ice floe. - Photo taken by Rebecca Levy

The polar bear shredding the foam lining of a plastic carrying case. - Photo taken by Jim Swift

To see photographs taken by Steve Roberts of UCAR/JOSS, click here.