The Great White Bear (31 page)

Hauling itself onto a slightly more distant piece of ice, it rocked back onto its haunches and, its back now ramrod-straight, pointed its nose straight up toward the bright blue sky. It looked as if it could be about to howl at the midnight sun or was perhaps adopting a pose of yogic meditation instead of, as was in fact the case, gaining maximum elevation to assess the scents that wafted from the ship. It dropped its forepaws to the ice once more and, without warning, rolled onto its back in the snow, shifting its rump back and forth as its massive paws waved harmlessly in the air. It was likely cooling off after its exertions, but to those on board the
Arctic Sunrise,
what had just minutes ago been a cause of concern and rapid disembarkation now appeared as threatening as an oversized family pet.

Returning to its feet, it took a second to regain its composure before wandering off across the ice. And then, in an instant, it reverted to its previous mode. A dark lump in the distance revealed itself through binoculars to be a seal, seemingly asleep on the floe; the bear flattened itself against the ice and crawled stealthily and circuitously toward its prey. Whether alerted to the bear's presence or simply determining it was time to move, the seal slipped swiftly into the water and away. The bear walked up to the edge of the ice floe, sniffed the air, and, with the ursine equivalent of a mildly disappointed shrug of the shoulders, continued its wandering, until it was out of sight.

There was a rumble as the Arctic stillness was broken by the sound of the ship's engines starting.

The ice was encroaching.

It was time to leave.

The ship turned around and began to steam south, the Nares Strait and its polar bears slowly receding into the distance.

page
BECOMING

[>]
"a superabundance": Ian Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 84.

[>]
 "Historically ... to den on": Steven Amstrup, conversation with the author, March 9, 2009.

[>]
 "interconnecting tunnels": Thomas'S. Smith, comments on draft manuscript.
"may not be a ventilation shaft": Ibid.

[>]
 "severity"; "tall, jagged": Nikita Ovsyanikov,
Polar Bears,
p. 96.

[>]
 "hissed so loudly": Ibid., p. 99.

[>]
 "I think ... against the far wall": Richard Harington, conversation with the author, August 16, 2008.
"I remember": Ibid.

[>]
 "I was with Tam Eeolik": Ibid.
"In the course of that ... at home or not": Geoff York, conversation with the author and others, Tundra Buggy Lodge, October 31, 2008.
"We shouted and hollered ... like a turtle": Ibid.
"She saw me ... she took off": Ibid.

[>]
"A human could
never
...have no problem": Thomas'S. Smith, comments on draft manuscript.

[>]
 "During the months ... you keep at it": Mike Spence, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

[>]
 "I would not have been able": Thorsten Milse,
Little Polar Bears,
p. 59.

[>]
 "rather inconsiderately"; "became aware"; "a bear's face": Hugh Miles and Mike Salisbury,
Kingdom of the Ice Bear,
p. 44.
"was greeted"; "The female fussed"; "the female emerged": Ibid., p. 47.

[>]
 "in the realm of the seal": Ibid., p. 48.
"When the moment finally arrives": Milse,
Little Polar Bears,
p. 19.
"Once she comes out ... off she'll go": Mike Spence, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

[>]
 "will spend mere minutes": Thomas'S. Smith, comments on draft manuscript.
"I'm convinced ... off they go": Ibid.

[>]
"If there are seven documented instances": Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 137.

BEAR

[>]
"beyond the north wind"; "Illnesses cannot touch them ... this exalted race": Kieran Mulvaney,
At the Ends of the Earth,
p. 1.

[>]
"gigantic": Steven C. Amstrup, "Polar Bear:
Ursus maritimus
," in
Wild Mammals of North America,
p. 591.

[>]
 "If a grizzly ... pull it back out": JoAnne Simerson, San Diego Zoo, conversation with the author, December 15, 2008.

[>]
 "To test the idea ... made by its breath!": Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 144.

[>]
 "Typically ... in the water": JoAnne Simerson, conversation with the author, December 15, 2008.
"They're like snowshoes": Ibid.

[>]
 "Warm surfaces ... inside the pelt": David Lavigne, International Fund for Animal Welfare, conversation with the author, December 11, 2008.

[>]
 "a miniature light pipe": Richard C. Davids,
Lords of the Arctic,
p. 25.
"We discovered...'Black Polar Bears'": David Lavigne, conversation with the author, December 11, 2008.

[>]
 "Now the ultraviolet...
absorbed
by the hair": Ibid.

[>]
 "of a monstrous bigness": Richard Hakluyt,
Voyages in Search of the NorthWest Passage,
retrieved online from
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h7hakluyt/northwest/chapter7.html
.

ICE

[>]
 "many of our company": Robert McGhee,
The Last Imaginary Place
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) p. 158.

[>]
 "terrifyingly like": Mariana Gosnell,
Ice,
p. 181.
"most fearfull both to see and heare": Gerrit de Veer,
A True and Perfect Description of Three Voyages
(1609) (Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1993) p. 101.
"Driven by the power of winds ... against such a force": McGhee,
The Last Imaginary Place,
p. 137.

[>]
 "It's like a wonderful time-lapse version ... It's pretty intense": Brendan P. Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.
"For me": Eric Larsen, conversation with the author, November 11, 2008.
"There are pieces of ice ... It's always changing": Ibid.

[>]
 "We had a bear ... in less than a minute": Ibid.

[>]
"like a lunar landscape": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

[>]
 "I've seen bears ... they don't like being near them": Ibid. "mostly for their sing-song linkage"

[>]
 "a circus"; "They whistle": Ibid.
Natalie Angier, "Who Is the Walrus?"
New York Times,
May 20, 2008.
"The call came ... it was wild": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

[>]
 "are always in battle": Erik W. Born,
The Walrus in Greenland,
p. 4.

[>]
 "A polar bear had swum too close": Erik W. Born,
The White Bears of Greenland,
p. 31.
"were on a ship": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

[>]
 "If you go ... right out of the water": Ibid.

[>]
 "When the first molecule-thick ... nose out to breathe": Ibid.

[>]
 "If you put your head ... a little chapel": Ibid.

LIFE

[>]
"virtually immortal": Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 139.

[>]
"When such groups ... madly in the air": Brendan Kelly, comments on draft manuscript.

[>]
 "that only the tip ... after its prey": Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 116.

[>]
 "I was amazed ... concious memory": Ibid., p. 117.

[>]
 "A lair might be a meter": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

[>]
 "Before the bear ... of the blow": Born,
The White Bears of Greenland,
p. 43.

[>]
 "What happened next": Davids,
Lords of the Arctic,
pp. 67—68.

[>]
 "Yesterday I watched": Charles Feazel,
White Bear,
pp. 2—3.
"I often find": Brendan Kelly, comments on draft manuscript.

[>]
 "seen them back up": Davids,
Lords of the Arctic,
p. 3.

[>]
 "The value of this alternate food": Amstrup, "Polar Bear:
Ursus maritimus,
" p. 592.
"it is essentially": Geoff York, comments on draft manuscript.

[>]
 "Imagine ... a treadmill": Ibid.
"Rear rudders of U.S. submarines": Andrew Chang, "Polar Bear Attacks U.S. Submarine," ABC News, May 30, 2003.
"I can't even imagine that ... Unreal": Eric Larsen, conversation with the author, November 11, 2008.

[>]
"absolutely desolate"; "we saw fox tracks"; "never saw a fox": Bruce Weber, "Riding Bombardier snowmobiles, he was the first to reach the North Pole,"
Globe and Mail,
October 22, 2008, p. R5.

[>]
 "far from sight": Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 67.

[>]
 "Polar bears used to be considered": Davids,
Lords of the Arctic,
p. 68.
"a solitary ice wanderer": Ovsyanikov,
Polar Bears,
p. 90.

[>]
 "It isn't that polar bears": Geoff York, comments on draft manuscript.
"In fact ... simple tolerance": Ovsyanikov,
Polar Bears,
p. 81.

[>]
 "only a few experienced animals": Ibid., p. 66.
"jumped down the small cliff": Ibid., p. 65.
"In the ensuing panic ... to defend it": Ibid., p. 66.

[>]
 "It is quite possible ... getting a meal": Ibid.

[>]
 "I have seen": Geoff York, comments on draft manuscript.

ENCOUNTERS

[>]
"Bears, the hunters kept telling him": Davids,
Lords of the Arctic,
p. 74.

[>]
"If you track a bear ... deeper and wider": Darren Keith et al.,
Inuit Knowledge of Polar Bears,
p. 94.
"The heel will dig ... the heel bone": Ibid.
"If you are ... at some point": Ibid., p. 118.

[>]
 "I have seen ... when it came out": Ibid., p. 112.
"Before ... and got stuck": Ibid., p. 113.

[>]
 "Recently ... the scientific literature": Richard Monastersky, "International Polar Year: The social pole?"
Nature
457, no. 1078 (February 25, 2009).

[>]
 "Arctic and Subarctic societies": Hugh Brody,
Living Arctic: Hunters of the Canadian North
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987), p. 37.
"Europeans, with their agricultural heritage": Ibid., p. 43.
"Only the very strongest": Jeannette Mirsky,
To the Arctic!: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 9.

[>]
 "[B]ut our master": de Veer,
A True and Perfect Description of Three Voyages,
p. 169.
"We leavelled at her": Ibid., pp. 154–55.

[>]
 "Her death": Ibid., p. 183.

[>]
 "A great leane": Ibid., pp. 62–63.

[>]
 "perceiving them": Ibid., p. 63.
"Our men are already dead": Ibid.
"making a great noyse": Ibid., p. 64.

[>]
 "This fierce tyrant"; "This bear"; "The annals of the north": Anonymous,
The Mariner's Chronicle
(New Haven: George W. Gorton, 1835), p. 415.

[>]
"a race": Roald Amundsen,
My Life as an Explorer
(New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928), p. 86.
"I had always heard": Ibid., p. 88.

[>]
 "If the bear is hunting": Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 117.
"I honestly think ... well blended in": Eric Larsen, conversation with the author, November 11, 2008.

[>]
 "When the stove ... into the tent": Ibid.

[>]
 "He showed no signs": Ovsyanikov,
Polar Bears,
p. 53.
"And then this giant ... terribly frightened": Ibid.
"One time ... crawled back out": Robert Buchanan, conversation with the author, December 22, 2008.

[>]
 "there's just not that much": Ibid.

[>]
 "The ones ... deep doo-doo": Ibid.
"A typical encounter ... so suddenly": Stephen Herrero, conversation with the author, October 27, 2009.
"thin"; "skinny": Stephen Herrero and Susan Fleck, "Injury to people inflicted by black, grizzly or polar bears," p. 31.

[>]
 "Bears are curious ... improving your safety": Stephen Herrero, conversation with the author, October 27, 2009.
"support the conclusion": Herrero and Fleck, "Injury to people inflicted by black, grizzly or polar bears," p. 31.
"People talk about ... piss-poor job of it": Thomas'S. Smith, conversation with the author, October 31, 2008.
"at least 251": Herrero and Fleck, "Injury to people inflicted by black, grizzly or polar bears," p. 31.

[>]
 "Europeans took to ... arctic journey": Barry Lopez,
Arctic Dreams,
p. 111.
"white bears of a monstrous bigness"; "being desirous"; "whereupon": Hakluyt,
Voyages in Search of the North- West Passage.
"laid her paws"; "with signs": Lopez,
Arctic Dreams,
p. 112.
"though at first": William Scoresby,
An Account of the Arctic Regions,
vol. I (Newton Abbot, England: David & Charles Reprints, 1969), p. 522.

[>]
 "he yielded": Ibid., p. 523.

[>]
 "one of the finest": Davids,
Lords of the Arctic,
p. 101.
"The polar bear": Ibid.

[>]
 "I am informed": Ibid.
"an international conference": Thor'S. Larsen and Ian Stirling,
The Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears—Its History and Future,
p. 5. 135 "scientific knowledge"; "take such steps"; "conduct": Ibid. "with a view": Ibid.

[>]
 "The taking ... be prohibited": International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitat, Article I, Paragraph 1.
"take appropriate action": International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitat, Article II.

[>]
 "still no other": Stirling,
Polar Bears,
p. 190.

[>]
"The bigger": Jon Talon, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.