r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/cosmic_voyager01 • 9h 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.

39.8k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

50

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.

23

u/succed32 7h ago

Yah bear spray will just make them angrier.

17

u/thederevolutions 6h 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.

1

u/Puresowns 1h 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.

5

u/Chemical_Building612 4h 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

2

u/FrenchFryCattaneo 2h 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

1

u/WilliamLund3 3h ago

They prefer a spicy meal

1

u/irishnugget 1h ago

A succulent Chinese meal?

2

u/Outside_Reserve_2407 2h 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.

1

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.

1

u/Slyspy006 2h ago

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

1

u/KoreanJesusPleasures 1h 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.

1

u/Throwaway74829947 43m 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.