Bear

   On polar bears.

   In East Greenland, one always carries a bear gun. This means a rifle or shotgun that will kill a bear. Among the Inuit, carrying a gun in country is a given. Wherever we landed and walked, we always carried a loaded gun.

   I saw a bear, on a small islet in the Bear Island archipelago deep in Scoresbysund, east of Milne Land. He knew he was spotted and he went to ground. We circled the islet close in, but did not see him again. The crew missed out. Going ashore to look for him was not an option: he would have swum away, or attacked us.

   Bear spoor was everywhere in some places. A lot of tracks, some huge, some fresh. Polar bear have wide feet; this is an adaption for swimming and for walking on snow. A lot of bear stool. One stool was made up of white bear hair. I have read of male polar bear killing and eating the cub; possibly this was what happened. 

   Often we came across driftwood that had been partly shredded by bear. I found a bear stool entirely made up of wood fragments. Perhaps the bear eats wood chips as a form of roughage. 

   One spot had a fair bit of bear hair scattered among the rocks. No blood, no flesh or bone, no carcass nearby. Possibly there was a minor scuffle between two bears. 

   Bones with chew marks are another sign of bear. The narwhal skull I found has teeth marks raking the snout, likewise many of its vertebrae and ribs scattered along the shore. 

   Most of the bear sign we saw was along the shore. 

   Being on bear alert was another stressor in the trip. Something that takes a lot of getting used to. We never got used to it.

   With absolutely no experience in the matter, I would think that bears generally shun humans, rather than investigating out of curiosity, or preying on people. 

   The village of Ittoqqotoormiit has a bear problem. The smell of food, the trash put out, and the dump nearby, tends to attract young male bear. These can be aggressive, are considered 'problem bears' and are shot.

   Ittoqqotoormiit is allowed by the Government to kill 35 bear total this year. One Inuit hunter I spoke with had taken 10, another 4.

   Around the village we saw a number of bear skin outdoors stretched out to cure. These skins were stunning, full of vitality and movement, predation and purity, the hair flowing in the wind.