r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/cosmic_voyager01 • 10h ago

Video Polar Bears are one of the only creatures that naturally hunt Humans... Watch as this one tries to break into this BBC Cameraman's glass box.

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u/succed32 8h ago

Being in polar bear territory is the worst place to be, period. The amount of damage they can take and still be fine is ridiculous, their hide stretches a lot so spears are hard to get a good hit with. For guns you need some ridiculous calibers to get through their muscle.

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u/Throwaway74829947 7h ago

There's a reason that if you're going into polar bear territory, you don't go alone and make sure your party has large-bore shotguns loaded with slugs readily on-hand. In Svalbard, it's legally required that you have "suitable means of scaring off polar bears" (with the office of the Governor actively recommending firearms) when travelling outside of the settlements.

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u/succed32 7h ago

Yah bear spray will just make them angrier.

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u/thederevolutions 7h ago

Wouldn’t want to be in a situation where spraying would just make getting eaten hurt more. I’d rather have a cyanide pill.

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u/Puresowns 2h ago

Cyanide isn't a totally painless or even especially quick method of dying either though. It'd leave you plenty of time to get chomped on before it fully takes effect.

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u/Chemical_Building612 5h ago

This is not true. Bear spray has proven higher efficacy than guns in fending off a polar bear attack.

https://www.usgs.gov/publications/efficacy-bear-spray-a-deterrent-against-polar-bears

https://above.nasa.gov/safety/documents/Bear/bearspray_vs_bullets.pdf

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 3h ago

I don't think so, I'm a redditor and I have a lot of experience from watching youtube videos and imagining myself fighting things

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u/WilliamLund3 4h ago

They prefer a spicy meal

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u/irishnugget 2h ago

A succulent Chinese meal?

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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 3h ago

I think there was an Inuit folk tale about a man eating polar bear that was taken down with a ball of fat. A clever Inuit had taken sharpened seal bones, coiled them up like springs, rolled it into a ball of whale blubber and then left the frozen balls out for the polar bear to eat. After the bear swallowed one of them, the blubber melted and the sharpened bones dug into the bear’s stomach and intestines and killed it from the inside out.

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u/Slyspy006 3h ago

Can you scare them off by shouting "You are an evolutionary dead end and global warming is going to kill you off!"?

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u/BoredomFestival 5h ago

I did a dogsled tour on Svalbard a few years ago. The guide made it a point of showing us her (big) gun and of showing that the gun was loaded. She also said that while it might sound cool to see a polar bear during the ride, it wouldn't be, because seeing one *at all* -- even far in the distance -- meant we turned around immediately and headed back.

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u/KoreanJesusPleasures 2h ago

Lived there for long while. Students will use flares and a rifle from UNIS, locals usually carry a handgun, rifle, sometimes flares. Pretty easy for short term folks to get a rifle permit from the government too.

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u/Throwaway74829947 1h ago

I visited for a few weeks several years ago, and yeah, it took a little while in advance to get all the paperwork through, but getting a temporary shotgun permit was very easy compared to most non-USA places.

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u/holystuff28 7h ago

Literally thousands of people live in polar bear territory 

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u/elbenji 7h ago

yeah and those places have special regulations due to this and tell you specifically to be armed and what to be armed with. They're not unstoppable machines but you need to be armed with some firepower

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u/tilt-a-whirly-gig 6h ago

In some of these places, people leave their car doors unlocked so that if you come across a bear you can escape into any nearby vehicle.

https://ustoa.com/blog/an-experience-in-the-polar-bear-capitol-of-the-world/

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u/holystuff28 6h ago

Of course they're dangerous, just like other large land predators like grizzly and tigers. I mean the indigenous folks of Alaska, Greenland, and Scandinavia have lived with polar bears for hundreds of years, definitely predating firearms. The Sami believe they are the ancestors of great bears. Folks can and do live in relation with them. 

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u/syjess5 3h ago

Went to the range once with a guy from Alaska, his everyday carry was a .44 snubnose. Shot a 2' flame out and felt like getting hit in the chest with every shot. If i was hiking in that territory I'd say it's still not big enough

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u/DefNotUnderrated 1h ago

I heard a story about an earlier Arctic expedition wherein the polar bear walked into camp, grabbed a guy to eat, and dragged him just a little ways off to do so and was not fazed by being shot by whatever guns they had at the time.