Polar Bear Playing with Husky

Posted by Alex in Animal, Pictures on October 11, 2007 at 3:50 pm


Picture this: Hunter-trapper Brian LaDoon was taking care of his pack of Husky dogs on a Canadian tundra and German photographer Norbert Rosing was setting up his cameras, when out of nowhere a large polar bear walked up to one of the dogs.

Brian knew that the bear had not eaten for months, and thought it was "curtains" for the dog when something completely unexpected happened: the polar bear and the dog started playing with each other!

Here’s a fantastic audio slideshow (lots of neat pics) given by Stuart Brown about the encounter: Link - Thanks Jennie!


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COMMENT

12 comments to "Polar Bear Playing with Husky"

  1. ted
    October 11th, 2007 at 5:04 pm

    Mother never told him not to play with his food.

  2. Ali S.
    October 11th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    That is one lonely polar bear.

  3. Justin
    October 11th, 2007 at 6:58 pm

    I bet it’s a pretty young polar bear still used to playing with his siblings. the pictures are still interesting though because polar bears are known to be solitary creatures.

    Four legs good, Four fins bad! :)

  4. Miss Cellania
    October 11th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

    Bears just wanna have fun.

  5. biltmore
    October 11th, 2007 at 9:36 pm

    Poor Polar Bears … bet he was just lonely.

  6. biltmore
    October 11th, 2007 at 9:38 pm

    At the end of the video it said that the polar bear came back to play with the dogs for that week.

    Awwwwww

  7. dgaicun
    October 11th, 2007 at 10:44 pm

    How do they know the bear didn’t eat for four months? This makes no sense, a 1200 lb animal needs to eat. What instinct possibly explains this? Even my pubescent dog would end up humping me in the middle of play, as he got excited and his doggy sexstincts took over. You’re telling me a starving bear in the middle of a ‘play’ bite wouldn’t face an even greater compulsion?

    And how would something that size even know how to play with something so much smaller? When Siegfried and Roy’s white tiger tried to treat Roy like a vulnerable pup it ended up almost biting his head off. A bear can’t treat a dog like a sibling.

    My crackpot theory is the global warming folks are trying to garner sympathy for the endangered bear by staging irresistible cuddle stunts.

    The whole blood stained soulless predator image wasn’t working.

  8. Alex
    October 12th, 2007 at 2:10 am

    They probably thought the bear was just coming out of hibernation, dgaicun - but you’re right, they couldn’t just ask the bear now, could they?

  9. Monster
    October 12th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    Just because he just came out of hibernation doesn’t mean he didn’t have a light snack on the way to play with some dogs.

  10. Vako
    October 16th, 2007 at 5:28 am

    They’re both gay.

    Inane joke aside, the “lonely” comments made by other people on this deal are, in my perception, probably fairly accurate. The social ranking system of dogs, and what not. The Husky might be low in rank, or a reject. The polar bear may have sensed it’s non-aggressiveness and smelled no threatening pharemones or whatever and figured the dog would be a friendly playmate. The dog, perceiving no threat from the polar bear for the same reasons, did not feel under threat. Sort of like two latent gays in a public restroom. Sometimes it just happens. And the body language and what not. See?

  11. Serenit
    April 4th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    The following video shows not just one polar bear, but several, playing with huskies: http://blip.tv/file/443387

    So, it doesn’t appear to be an isolated event. There are also reports of young grizzly bears and wolves playing with each other, and even hunting together. Though the grizzly usually runs off the wolves when it comes down to which gets the kill.

  12. Silvaine Zimmermann
    February 4th, 2009 at 1:32 pm

    vote for the lonely interpretation. bears are only human after all…


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