The Polar Bear Plunge has been more of a luke-warm swim in some places this time around due to climate change, but it has, once again, raised a significant amount of money for charitable organisations including the Special Olympics.
This is supposed to be a real Bears; Polar Bear Edition post and not a bunch of half-naked-people-jumping-into-luke-warm-water-post so let’s meet Nikita Ovsyanikov who lives with polar bears.
On How He Lives Among Polar Bears: “You can’t make yourself invisible to animals—they’re smart, they see what’s in their territory, they’ll come investigate you. So you have to convince them that you’re a harmless creature. I have to present myself not as a hunter but that I’m living there alongside them. Year after year, they know when you’re in this cabin, you’re not posing any threat to them.”
Fascinating!
Here is a video of polar bears being polar bears courtesy of the BBC:
BBC Earth also has a new series “Seven Worlds, One Planet” that seems to include some polar bears:
Gah they’re so cute!!
Polar Bears make me sad. Every time I see them I realize that they’re living the harsh reality of climate change in a way that most of the rest of us won’t experience for a few decades yet. Poor polar bears. 🙁
Me too. I almost didn’t click on this post because I was afraid it was going to be another emaciated polar bear shot by russians type thing. Glad it wasn’t. Although, I hope the dude’s life doesn’t turn into a sequel to Grizzly Man.