At practically 1,800 kilos, polar bears are roughly 3 times the scale of a black bear
Revealed October 10, 2025 06:48PM
In a violent Arctic recreation of tug-of-war, a number of polar bears in northern Canada needed to fend off an excessively keen—and outnumbered—black bear vying for a meal. And all the ordeal was captured on video.
Photographer John Shedwick filmed the brawl whereas at sea aboard the luxurious Seabourn Cruise Line expedition voyage. The cruise was crusing by way of the Torngat Mountains Nationwide Park and Nachvak Fjord in northern Labrador, Canada, situated on the northeastern tip of North America.
Shedwick described the second as “one thing out of a Renaissance portray.”
“As a photographer, you panic, are my settings dialed in? Am I in place? And as soon as you realize you’re, intuition takes over and also you merely marvel on the drama,” Shedwick advised Exterior by way of e mail.
A number of polar bears—what look like a sow and her cubs—are proven within the video as they feed on a carcass. At first, one other grownup polar bear tries to get in on the prize earlier than being attacked by the unique bears. Then, a black bear creeps in by way of the comb and begins tugging, pulling, and sinking its two-inch enamel into the carcass.
The tried thievery prompts an indignant response from one of many polar bears. With blood dripping down its white fur in dramatic kind, the big polar bear finally succeeds in disregarding the black bear.
The winner ought to come as no shock. Black bears high out round 600 kilos, and an grownup polar bear weighs as much as 3 times that.
“Encounters like this remind us why we discover,” Robin West, Searbourn vp of expedition operations and planning, advised Exterior. “Within the distant wilderness of the Torngat Mountains, few folks on Earth have witnessed such a uncommon interplay between a polar bear and a black bear. Our expeditions are designed to carry friends nearer to those moments, all the time with deep respect for the wildlife and the environments that make them attainable.”
Polar bears dwelling alongside the coast of Labrador primarily feed on seals and, as such, are most frequently discovered on sea ice. They go to land for under quick durations, however will be pressured ashore for a number of months or extra when sea ice is unavailable. Although the precise variety of particular person bears on this area is unknown, the Authorities and Newfoundland and Labrador estimate there could also be a number of hundred alive. Canada’s Division of Setting and Conservation estimates that there are round 15,000 polar bears throughout the Arctic nation.
Parks Canada describes the subarctic Torngat Mountains as having “a saw-tooth skyline of jagged peaks and glacier-carved fjords plunges in direction of iceberg-dotted indigo waters as polar bears and caribou roam amid a few of Earth’s oldest rocks.” We’d add it’s additionally the proverbial Madison Sq. Backyard of polar bear versus black bear prize fights to that description.
