See emakaru, kel järel kaks esimese aasta poega, käitus vastupidiselt meie ootustele. Enamasti püüab emakaru alati riske vältida ja oma poegi kaitsta. Kui eemalt neid silmasime, olime peaaegu kindlad, et nad meid nähes põgenevad. Kuid olukord kujunes sootuks vastupidiseks. Meil tuli paugutada ja koledal kombel lärmi teha, et sundida neid taganema. Üha uuesti ja uuesti pöördus ta tagasi. Nii juhtus mitu korda ja meile hakkas juba tunduma, et ta ei kavatsegi alla anda. Lõpuks siiski...
Selline käitumine emakaru poolt oli meie jaoks esmakordne. Ju pidi tal nälg olema niivõrd suur, et poegade elus hoidmiseks polnud suurt valikut. Stressis karu on kõige ohtlikum karu.
Põhja-Jäämere aina kahanev jääkate muudab nende tuleviku paraku väga tumedaks. Seepärast ilmselt kohtab ka karude puhul aina sagedamini neile harjumatut käitumist, mille põhjustajaks on võimetus edukalt hülgeid küttida ja sellest tulenev stress.
She has made a decision to take a risk...
This mother bear, who has two first year cubs following her, behaved opposite to our expectations. Most cases mother bear tries to avoid risks and protect her cubs. When we saw them from a distant, we were almost sure that they would run away. But the situation became quite the contrary. We had to shoot several shots and make whatever loud noise to force her back off. Yet, she turned back again... and again. We almost thought that she never gonna give up. But finally it happened...
This kind of behaviour by the female polar bear was first time for us to witness. Cannot make any other conclusion than that she must have had hunger so deep that there was not many choices for her to keep cubs alive. Stressed polar bear is the most dangerous polar bear.
Retreating sea ice of the Arctic Ocean does not leave them many choices. In fact, their future looks unfortunately rather dark. Inability to hunt seals and resulting stress probably also changes their behaviour and makes them even more unpredictable.
Põhja-Jäämeri 2012 / Arctic Ocean 2012
