It’s after 10 PM in the land of the midnight sun, and I’m on the stern of a small Quark Expeditions cruise ship, watching a polar bear stalk a seal in slow motion. The bear skulks between floating ice pans. A blubbery spotted seal lifts its nose to sniff the air every few minutes, then flops back down. We cruise passengers look back and forth with our binoculars, fingers going numb in the 32-degree night.
Finally, when the bear has almost reached its prey, the seal cries out, “See ya, sucker!” then slips into the water. The frustrated bear pulls itself up onto a sheet of floating ice and performs a series of calisthenics, including downward-facing bear and lying on its back kicking its four feet in the air. Here are just a few factoids about these fascinating bears.