Im out on an island in the bearing sea. It's about 4/5 miles off the arctic coast close to Canadian border. There is one other island further out to sea and then nothing till the polar ice cap (what remains) except ocean.
The small native settlement (Inupic)(Iskimo) has just killed a Whale & surprisingly soon there are approx. 70 polar bears at the whale carcass. Also 3 Grizzly bears swim from the north slope shore to the island. One of the grizzlies is huge. Also a number of the polar bears are huge. All the bears were very large but some were true stand outs insofar as size.
It is a common place for the polar bears to congregate while waiting for the bearing sea to freeze solid so they can start wandering the polar ice cap & frozen sea.
Fights break out periodically between polar bears but no real harm is done. A fight broke out between one of the polar bears and one of the grizzlies also. Fortunately it ended without death. The polar bears seem to have larger canine teeth than the grizzlies but the grizzlies had much longer claws than the polar bears. The polar bear ended up with long gash marks on its side from the fight with the grizzly. Sad.
The natives killed 7 polar bears while I was there. It's against the law to kill the polar bears except if threaten or they will not leave certain settlement areas after being prodded to leave.
I went to work at 10am & got off at 2am the next morning. As I lay down sleeping I heard a ruckus outside my window, so I pulled up the blinds to see what was happening. A cub (1/2 yrs old) large mom & an even larger dad are approx. 45ft from my window. Two pickup trucks (new) are close to the 3 bears and are revving their engines trying to get polar bears to leave the area. One truck had a native resident & and other had the sole state trooper. Revving the engines of these new relatively quiet trucks meant nothe to the 3 bears. The state trooper, who is an honest 6'5" gets out of his truck with a shotgun. The shotgun seemed small to me but it may be because the trooper was a large man. So the trooper shoots several rounds on either side of the bears but the bears are completely oblivious to this and undonted.
Mom & pop are killed and baby wonders off.
Man I was so pissed off I had trouble containing myself but didn't want to get fired. I tried to tell them they need to saw off the end off the shot gun barrel so that the bears could visually sea the flames comming from the gun and maybe associate that with danger but nobody wants to hear from me (mr. nobody).
I felt the effort to protect the bears was sorrowfully inadequate & heartbreaking.
Artashes
The small native settlement (Inupic)(Iskimo) has just killed a Whale & surprisingly soon there are approx. 70 polar bears at the whale carcass. Also 3 Grizzly bears swim from the north slope shore to the island. One of the grizzlies is huge. Also a number of the polar bears are huge. All the bears were very large but some were true stand outs insofar as size.
It is a common place for the polar bears to congregate while waiting for the bearing sea to freeze solid so they can start wandering the polar ice cap & frozen sea.
Fights break out periodically between polar bears but no real harm is done. A fight broke out between one of the polar bears and one of the grizzlies also. Fortunately it ended without death. The polar bears seem to have larger canine teeth than the grizzlies but the grizzlies had much longer claws than the polar bears. The polar bear ended up with long gash marks on its side from the fight with the grizzly. Sad.
The natives killed 7 polar bears while I was there. It's against the law to kill the polar bears except if threaten or they will not leave certain settlement areas after being prodded to leave.
I went to work at 10am & got off at 2am the next morning. As I lay down sleeping I heard a ruckus outside my window, so I pulled up the blinds to see what was happening. A cub (1/2 yrs old) large mom & an even larger dad are approx. 45ft from my window. Two pickup trucks (new) are close to the 3 bears and are revving their engines trying to get polar bears to leave the area. One truck had a native resident & and other had the sole state trooper. Revving the engines of these new relatively quiet trucks meant nothe to the 3 bears. The state trooper, who is an honest 6'5" gets out of his truck with a shotgun. The shotgun seemed small to me but it may be because the trooper was a large man. So the trooper shoots several rounds on either side of the bears but the bears are completely oblivious to this and undonted.
Mom & pop are killed and baby wonders off.
Man I was so pissed off I had trouble containing myself but didn't want to get fired. I tried to tell them they need to saw off the end off the shot gun barrel so that the bears could visually sea the flames comming from the gun and maybe associate that with danger but nobody wants to hear from me (mr. nobody).
I felt the effort to protect the bears was sorrowfully inadequate & heartbreaking.
Artashes
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