Catch a glimpse of the world's largest land predator in Greenland
Tourists aboard an expedition ship in Greenland observed a teenage polar bear navigating ice floes near their vessel. The encounter highlights the bear's natural behavior and the environmental challenges facing the species in the Arctic.
Why it matters
Polar bears are a key indicator species for climate change, and their interactions with human activity in the Arctic are increasingly documented.
Head for the Arctic and you will hear crunches and creaks as icebergs bob along the turquoise waters.
They come in all sizes, gliding by, some shaped like birds or clouds or animals. Icebergs float about on the water, now blue, now milky grey.
And there is a sound like a shot when a chunk breaks off a glacier and a whole host of tiny ice shards are hurled into the water.
We behold this Arctic natural spectacle from aboard the MS Spitsbergen.
Then we spot a teenage polar bear, who we initially saw only as a small pale yellow dot on a distant iceberg. He is busy using the floes and chunks of ice to work his way closer to the ship.
Shy at first, he stays several hundred metres away. But the longer the vessel lies quietly in front of the glacier, the more curious the bear becomes.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in