“Nature always sends you something when you least expect it”

January 21, 2022 3:35 AM

These Polar Bears Are Living Their Best Life on an Abandoned Island A bit of Friday joy as we head in to the weekend - an abandoned meteorological station has become home to a colony of polar bears, and they seem to be thriving.
posted by Megami (30 comments total)

My, those are cute pictures. Very good work.
posted by mumimor at 3:46 AM on January 21, 2022

They're good bears, brent.
posted by Alex404 at 3:53 AM on January 21, 2022 [9 favorites]

Polar bears always look, to me, like they should have cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, maybe a cup of coffee. “My friend, there is no meteorological data today.” *shrug* “what can a bear do?”
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:05 AM on January 21, 2022 [29 favorites]

Thanks! I needed this today!
posted by MrGuilt at 5:39 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wonder if these pictures were taken with a drone of some kind? it would NOT be safe to just wander up to polar bears for a quick selfie.
posted by Lanark at 6:00 AM on January 21, 2022 [11 favorites]

The last photo: It Me.

I'm surprised how fearless? tame? curious? these bears seem to be towards the photographer. There didn't appear to be any postscript along the lines of "images found among tattered remains" so maybe Lanark's supposition is correct.
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 6:02 AM on January 21, 2022 [8 favorites]

I'm also curious at the photography technique here. Maybe those are the world's friendliest Polar bears or the world's bravest photographer, or both. But they are very adorable
posted by dis_integration at 6:04 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Love this.
posted by widdershins at 6:24 AM on January 21, 2022

I'm surprised how fearless? tame? curious? these bears seem to be towards the photographer.

Animals that don't think you have food, might be food, or might want them to be your food are often super-chill around people, the trick is making sure they keep thinking all that.
posted by mhoye at 7:59 AM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

It’s quite a contrast from the BBC’s cameraman’s experience
posted by Monochrome at 8:14 AM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

When I saw polar bears in the wild (from a "tundra buggy" which we were told was a Russian amphibious assault vehicle repurposed for tourism in northern Canada), the polar bears were very curious about us but not, uh, calm. They absolutely would have killed us. Then again, we did have food on the bus.
posted by joannemerriam at 8:25 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

we did have food on the bus

To a polar bear you are the food.
posted by Lanark at 8:41 AM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love them and dogs are great, but wouldn't it be amazing to live in the timeline where we domesticated bears?
posted by furnace.heart at 9:25 AM on January 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

Yet more proof that I will die petting something I shouldn't.
posted by Space Kitty at 9:51 AM on January 21, 2022 [10 favorites]

I think polar bears are 10000000% terrifying but omg also so cute! they do look very happy and chill here. I would prob try to pet them. gotta go somehow...
posted by supermedusa at 9:54 AM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

She died doing what she loved, being eaten by polar bears.
posted by ellieBOA at 9:56 AM on January 21, 2022 [16 favorites]

If polar bears dangerous then why the fuzzy ears, the cute noses and the happy smiles? Delicious humans can rely upon the kindness of polar bears.

Please marinade yourselves before visiting to er keep the mosquitoes away! Yes, mosquitoes.
posted by fallingbadgers at 10:18 AM on January 21, 2022 [11 favorites]

This is wonderful, thank you!
posted by Mavri at 10:20 AM on January 21, 2022

also possibly the cutest babies in the mammal kingdom. the little butts? all fuzzy?
posted by supermedusa at 11:15 AM on January 21, 2022

Stories like this are making me believe that E O Wilson's crazy idea of Half-Earth is an achievable goal.
posted by indianbadger1 at 11:51 AM on January 21, 2022

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love them and dogs are great, but wouldn't it be amazing to live in the timeline where we domesticated bears?

They'd probably wind up looking like dogs.
posted by panama joe at 12:12 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

They'd probably wind up looking like dogs.

BUT HUGE AND FAT AND SLEEPY.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:22 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

They'd probably wind up looking like dogs.

BUT HUGE AND FAT AND SLEEPY.

And would be so, so nice to snuggle with during winter.
posted by Lexica at 12:44 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

I wonder if these pictures were taken with a drone of some kind? it would NOT be safe to just wander up to polar bears for a quick selfie.

There's a video available (which I found on the photographer's website) which definitely looks like drone work. In particular, from about 0:55–1:20 you can sense the photographer thinking, "hmm, they could probably swat this thing out of the air if they wanted to, couldn't they?"
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:00 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

The video is fascinating. All large predators spend a lot of time just hanging around and sleeping and puttering and polar bears are the cutest examples, though I like the big cats and grizzlies too. And wolves. I feel we should be doing the same. Aren't we large predators? Why are we moving so much and working so hard?
posted by mumimor at 1:53 PM on January 21, 2022 [9 favorites]

"And would be so, so nice to snuggle with during winter."

Apparently bears smell just awful. Might be worth it for the snugs, though?
posted by EarnestDeer at 4:16 PM on January 21, 2022

so adorbs, but they still need sea ice to actually find seals to eat, so I am a bit confused as to how they are living on this island!
posted by mollymillions at 10:16 PM on January 21, 2022

I think my favorite thing is the little nose wrinkle at 2'30" in the drone footage.

Also, as terrifying as the BBC video is, I had to laugh at this sequence, which looked like the camera guy had stopped at a light and the bear was insisting on cleaning his windows.

Great photos, Megami. Thanks for posting them. And Johnny Assay and Monochrome, thanks for sharing those videos.
posted by yankeefog at 2:42 AM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

At my job, we have a huge polar bear skin, so for the sake of the enlightenment of this thread, I touched it the other day, and it is not at all snuggly. Apart from the fact that I would get eaten, I also wouldn't snuggle with a polar bear because it has a fur that is a lot more like a porcupine than a cat.
posted by mumimor at 4:36 AM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I imagine (I have never had the opportunity to verify this) that large wild cats have much rougher fur than domesticated house cats. If that's the case, I remain interested in the eventual possibility of knee-height snuggly domesticated bears.

Look, I'm an optimist, okay?
posted by Lexica at 3:55 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]