When Jon Sigurdsson from Hafnarfjordur in Iceland was travelling in northern Labrador earlier this week, he captured a sight on his camera he thought he would never see — a mother polar bear fighting a black bear.
Sigurdsson described the encounter as remarkable and unexpected. He had been travelling down from Baffin Island into the Torngat Mountains with others on an expedition, and told CBC they had been seeing plenty of polar bears.
But on Tuesday, they saw a mother and her cub on the shore eating a seal.
“This was quite enjoyable to witness. We kept a good distance. And all of a sudden we saw another mother and cub, also polar bears,” said Sigurdsson.
“And they approached and there was a little fight between the mothers, but apparently there was enough of seal.”
Two pairs of mother and polar bear cubs share a seal carcass. (Submitted by Jon Sigurdsson)
He said the two pairs of mothers and cubs shared the seal carcass but it was what happened next that was extraordinary.
“We could see a black bear a little bit further up the hill approaching the polar bears and we said to ourselves that this is not going to happen. There is not going to be any sort of confrontation, but the black bear continued and it made its way all the way to the polar bears. And the polar bears were not happy with this … and there was an attack,” said Sigurdsson.
The black bear thought it would be able to get in on the action and share with the polar bears. (Submitted by Jon Sigurdsson )
But the mother polar bear eventually scared off the black bear, he said, adding he had never seen anything like it in his many years of travelling.
Sigurdsson had previously heard stories of other folks in the same area seeing polar bears and black bears at the same time, but nothing like his encounter. Along with his colleagues, he hasn’t been able to find similar encounters when searching for photos.
LISTEN | Hear about the encounter in Sigurdsson’s own words:
Labrador Morning4:33A bear of a showdown: photo captures polar bear and black bear squaring off
You may have heard of Rocky vs. Apollo or Freddy vs. Jason but the Torngat Mountains was the site of another titanic showdown: polar bear vs. black bear. A photograph showing the two creatures squaring off has been making the rounds of social media. We hear from the photographer who captured the action.
“It feels really enjoyable being able to to share this and so people can see what happened. Many people don’t believe this is actual, it’s some kind of AI generated, but it it’s not, so that … feels really good.”
Sigurdsson says he will remember the day for the rest of his life.
The polar bears were eating well that day in the Torngat Mountains. (Submitted by Jon Sigurdsson)
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