Wildlife watchers in Billefjorden, Svalbard, were stunned when a\u00a0polar bear\u00a0used a juvenile seal as bait to try to catch its mother too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The footage \u2013 taken using telephoto lenses in spring 2026 \u2013 shows a polar bear<\/a>\u2019s ingenious hunting strategy. After stalking a juvenile bearded seal, the massive predator struck the pup.<\/p>\n Not content with just one victim, the bear then started backing away from the seal. This strategy is thought to be an attempt to lure the mother \u2013 still underwater nearby \u2013 onto the ice to try to rescue her baby, giving the polar bear the opportunity to catch mum too.\u00a0<\/p>\n Realising the mother seal wasn\u2019t going to risk trying to rescue her little one, the bear returned to its original target and pounced on the juvenile with its forepaws before dragging the pup along the ice to feed on its carcass.\u00a0<\/p>\n See the polar bear’s ingenious hunting strategy in action. Credit: Secret Atlas<\/p>\n Seeing one of the world\u2019s\u00a0most powerful predators<\/a>\u00a0mid-hunt is a shocking experience but understanding its fiendish tactics makes it even more exhilarating. \u201cThe\u00a0bear\u00a0spent real time reading the ice before committing, then used the pup deliberately to try to draw the mother in,\u201d says\u00a0Michele D’Agostino,<\/a>\u00a0co-founder of small group expedition company Secret Atlas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s not instinct alone,\u201d D’Agostino adds. \u201cThat’s a\u00a0bear\u00a0that has learned how bearded seals behave and is working the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n The polar bear had been hunting for several hours and the tourists were in the right place at the right time to watch the astonishing moment unfold. <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s the kind of detail you only get from being on the ice long enough, and quietly enough, to witness the entire hunting sequence unfold rather than just the final capture,\u201d says D’Agostino.\u00a0<\/p>\n Image and video credit: Secret Atlas. Telephoto lenses were used for this photography, which can make wildlife appear closer than it was. All sightings followed AECO distance guidelines and local regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wildlife watchers in Billefjorden, Svalbard, were stunned when a\u00a0polar bear\u00a0used a juvenile seal as bait to try to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-831160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}