amazing polar bear pics

[broozer]

beautiful pics! i don't know much about wild polar bears, but that one seems to be very gentle with that dog.

bruce

[JMH]

Maybe it saw him, decided that he had more meat on him, and was trying to lure him out by acting friendly to his dogs?

[CigarZen]

INCREDIBLE pics Ken!

[COJ]

Very COOL pictures!

This polar bear surely destroy there reputation as furious wild beasts!:-D

[GP012]

I remember hearing that those were from a National Geographic article way back in the late 80's or early 90's, taken by Norbert Rosing.

Speaking of big white predators acting out of character, I'm a fan of the Swimming White Bengal Tiger photo series.

Better angles here, complete with a gazillion ads.

[Guest Warren]

And then the Polar bear went home and his mother said " How many times have I told you , don't play with your food":-D

[JMH]

A few years ago up at dreamworld on the gold coast I got to go backstage at the tiger exhibit to their individual cages while they were being fed. The cages were chain link, and we were standing up against the wall as far away as we could get, which was about a metre. They we absolutely huge up close in person, and practically solid muscle. They would come charging at us (and the other tigers in the adjoining cages), snarling, protecting their food. After seeing and hearing them crunching through huge cow bones like they were twigs, I think I can say that if I were in the wild, had a gun, and saw one of those things coming at me, I probably wouldn't waste my bullets trying to stop the tiger, I'd turn the gun on myself.

[VigorishSLC]

Q: What do you get when you cross a polar bear and a human?

[shrink]

» Q: What do you get when you cross a polar bear and a human?

Unfortunately, as history reveals, a dead polar bear...

[Ken Gargett]

years ago when travelling in zaire, we came across a small village that had killed a leopard the night before. the leopard had been sneaking in at night killing their chickens and pigs etc and there had been a couple of villagers disappear, never to be seen again. they had got a hunter to come in and he had shot it. it was strung up and although not a very large beast, what i remember most was the extraordinary obvious power it had. muscles you couldn't believe up close. i remember thinking that tarzan and jungle jim etc had to be kidding. even though small, it would have torn you apart in a second.

the other thing i remember about it was how even dead it utterly terrified most of the villagers. the bravest would get a big run up, come flying in and hit the carcass with a stick and then run off screaming with terror. many gave up half way on the run in, fleeing in terror while others just hid and sobbed. it held them in the grip of fear like i have never seen.

in one town, one of the girls had bought a model lion, about 15 inches high. it was a wooden thing that someone had covered in yellow fur and given a mane to it. looked ridiculous but in some villagers, when they saw it, they fled in utter terror of this wooden carving. we worked out that they knew of lions but most had only seen a photo or two, never the real thing. they had no idea of their size or what they did other than that they ate people. so they thought this thing was the real thing and real size. most amazing place to travel.

» A few years ago up at dreamworld on the gold coast I got to go backstage at

» the tiger exhibit to their individual cages while they were being fed. The

» cages were chain link, and we were standing up against the wall as far

» away as we could get, which was about a metre. They we absolutely huge up

» close in person, and practically solid muscle. They would come charging at

» us (and the other tigers in the adjoining cages), snarling, protecting

» their food. After seeing and hearing them crunching through huge cow bones

» like they were twigs, I think I can say that if I were in the wild, had a

» gun, and saw one of those things coming at me, I probably wouldn't waste

» my bullets trying to stop the tiger, I'd turn the gun on myself.

[VigorishSLC]

» Q: What do you get when you cross a polar bear and a human?

A: A polar bear! :-D

[JMH]

» one of the girls had bought a model lion, about 15 inches

» high. it was a wooden thing that someone had covered in yellow fur and

» given a mane to it. looked ridiculous but in some villagers, when they saw

» it, they fled in utter terror of this wooden carving. we worked out that

» they knew of lions but most had only seen a photo or two, never the real

» thing. they had no idea of their size or what they did other than that

» they ate people. so they thought this thing was the real thing and real

» size. most amazing place to travel.

»

I remember watching a documentary about the saber toothed cats on nat geo a few months back, and apparently the earliest member of the genus was around the size of a modern day house cat, but it had canines larger than a modern day tiger, and could take down deer-sized prey.

[Guest Warren]

»

»

You know , the way it's tail seems to be coming right out of it's head, it kind of looks like a big angry Sperm

[Wiley]

Thanks for the photos Ken!

It's odd enough that a wild bear would want to play with dogs. It also strikes me as odd that the dogs would want to play with a wild bear.

I was watching a show on Animal Planet a few days ago that was about tigers, and the host was some guy that raises tigers, I guess. I didn't see the beginning so I don't know his story, but periodically they'd break away from the main story to show him and an adult tiger playing, which was crazy and amazing to watch.

He told a story about one of his tigers coming down on top of him, and for whatever reason he thought the tiger was going to try to bite him, so he jabbed the tigers lips into it's mouth on the sides. Apparently they won't bite down on themselves. Not that it would save you from a wild tiger's claws, I'm thinking.

[wp2]

One word Ken, WOW!

[Ken Gargett]

These are Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear

playing with sled dogs in the wilds of Canada's Hudson Bay.

The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his huskies when the polar bear materialized out of the blue, as it were. Don't blame him. instead...

Obviously it was a well-fed Bear...

The Polar Bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs...