Posts Tagged ‘kill’

Arctic Day 2 – Storfjorden Region

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Another very, very early wake up call this morning… 5:30am early.  No worries though.  It was to announce a polar bear off the bow.

Sleeping polar bear

It’s amazing how the staff and crew can spot these creatures from so far away in what seems like an endless sea of pack ice.  They have binoculars and spotting scopes but even with those tools it takes years of experience to be able to pick out the slightly off white color from the rest of the white.  However, once they are spotted far off in the distance the captain maneuvers the ship closer so the rest of us can get a good look.

Scanning for polar bears in the pack ice

Polar Bear through the spotting scope

Polar Bear resting on the pack ice

We were lucky enough to see a polar bear with a kill which isn’t uncommon but not seen on every trip.

Polar Bear with a kill

Even the birds were happy… at least the dominant one was happy because he scared away the rest of his competition.

Birds eating Polar Bear kill

I spent most of my time hanging out taking pictures out on deck above the bridge or out on the bow.  However, I go on the bridge once and while to warm up and talk with the staff.  As I’ve mentioned before, the staff and crew on the NatGeo Explorer are some of the best I’ve travelled with.  One of the interesting things I learned from the staff is that when a Polar Bear sticks out it’s tongue it means that it’s stressed.  I thought it was just a regular yawn. Not the case though.  It seems like the presence of our ship was disturbing it and after a while the captain backed away to let the Polar Bear go about its business.

Polar bear sticking tongue out

We caught up with another Polar Bear later taking a little swim.

Polar Bear swimming

Did you know that polar bears can swim hundreds of miles without resting.  They can also jump 7 feet out of the water onto the ice.  We never saw this happen but that would be a sight to see.  A 1500 lb polar bear jumping 7 feet out of the water.  I guess we’ll have to go back to try and get that picture.

Today was a one polar bear encounter after another.  Amazing experience and a couple of good photographs too :)

Iceberg jacuzzi

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Jackal killing a spotted dear

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Most of the action that happened during our game drives in Bandhavgarh usually happened in the last few minutes of our drives.  This day was no exception.  We were on our way back to the front gate of the park when our guide saw what appeared to be a dead spotted dear near the side of the road.

Sleeping? Spotted Deer

We all thought the deer was dead and were anxiously looking around for what could have killed it.  After some searching we spotted a jackal waiting in the bushes.  Our vehicle probably scared him off his kill.  We backed up the vehicle to give some space between us and the deer in the hopes the jackal would come back for his kill.

To our surprise, the deer’s head started moving.  Then it started to slowly get up.  It wasn’t dead after all… at least not yet.  After it stumbled to its feet it just stood there all dazed and confused.  Then all of the sudden it started to run.  It probably just realized what happend to him and knew he needed to get the heck out of there.  The problem was that this was the edge of the park and they erected a wall to keep the wildlife out of the village that was right next door.  Bad news for the deer.  Good news for the Jackal.

Spotted deer escaping from Jackal

The deer didn’t have anywhere to go and the jackal quickly ran out of the woods after the deer

Jackal caught up with the spotted deer

The deer put up a valiant effort and with some pretty skillful dodging a weaving he did manage to get away… but just for a while.  The Jackal was just too quick for the deer and he was eventually able to bite into the deer’s ear and pull its head to the ground.  The deer was pretty tall compared to the Jackal so he needed to get its neck lower in order to get its mouth around it to suffocate it.

See the final kill after the break

(more…)

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