Not much later another bear, the second of the day was seen on an ice floe so the ship again turned around, and we went to look. This bear was eating a seal it had caught fairly recently. She, we think, dragged the seal to the other side of the floe as we neared. She was sharing the kill with several glaucous gulls and a couple ivory gulls. Sharing is the wrong word, the gulls snatched an occasional tidbit when the bear was working at the other end of the seal.
A third bear, smaller and thinner than the second bear, jumped on the ice floe and raced toward the second, larger bear, who abandoned the kill without even a snarl. The second bear swam to a nearby floe and watched the third bear take over the seal. By late afternoon the seal was nearly down to bones.
The naturalists thought that the third bear was a yearling or two year-old cub of the second bear not yet own its own, and that the mother left the seal to the cub. In any event, she had eaten most of the blubber, perhaps 40 kg, which, at 9 calories/g, works out to 360,000 calories. Now that’s a hearty meal.
I should mention that the expedition guides offer lectures , two or three a day, on a variety of topics from photography to flora and fauna, geography, climate.
Morning Position high in the Arctic Sea.
Harp seals in a pack of about a dozen.
Swimming bear, number one of the day.
Mama bear, bear number 2, with her seal, glaucous gull watching.
She moves the seal away from the ship.
Glaucous gull with gray wings and two ivory gulls check the site where the seal had been.
Baby bear, bear number 3, has taken over the catch. Mama bear on the far floe.
Baby bear and helper work the seal.
Getting into it.
Darwin said that 'nature was red on tooth and claw' but really.
We saw seals often taking a breather on the floe next to an air hole.
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