In a violent Arctic game of tug-of-war, several polar bears in northern Canada had to fend off an overly eager—and outnumbered—black bear vying for a meal. And the entire ordeal was captured on video.
Photographer John Shedwick filmed the brawl while at sea aboard the luxury Seabourn Cruise Line expedition voyage. The cruise was sailing through the Torngat Mountains National Park and Nachvak Fjord in northern Labrador, Canada, located on the northeastern tip of North America.
Shedwick described the moment as “something out of a Renaissance painting.”
“As a photographer, you panic, are my settings dialed in? Am I in position? And once you know you are, instinct takes over and you simply marvel at the drama,” Shedwick told Outside via email.
Several polar bears—what appear to be a sow and her cubs—are shown in the video as they feed on a carcass. At first, another adult polar bear tries to get in on the prize before being attacked by the original bears. Then, a black bear creeps in through the brush and begins tugging, pulling, and sinking its two-inch teeth into the carcass.
The attempted thievery prompts an angry response from one of the polar bears. With blood dripping down its white fur in dramatic form, the enormous polar bear ultimately succeeds in brushing off the black bear.
The winner should come as no surprise. Black bears top out around 600 pounds, and an adult polar bear weighs up to three times that.
“Encounters like this remind us why we explore,” Robin West, Searbourn vice president of expedition operations and planning, told Outside. “In the remote wilderness of the Torngat Mountains, few people on Earth have witnessed such a rare interaction between a polar bear and a black bear. Our expeditions are designed to bring guests closer to these moments, always with deep respect for the wildlife and the environments that make them possible.”
Polar bears living along the coast of Labrador primarily feed on seals and, as such, are most often found on sea ice. They visit land for only short periods, but can be forced ashore for several months or more when sea ice is unavailable. Though the exact number of individual bears in this region is unknown, the Government and Newfoundland and Labrador estimate there may be several hundred alive. Canada’s Department of Environment and Conservation estimates that there are around 15,000 polar bears across the Arctic nation.
Parks Canada describes the subarctic Torngat Mountains as having “a saw-tooth skyline of jagged peaks and glacier-carved fjords plunges towards iceberg-dotted indigo waters as polar bears and caribou roam amid some of Earth’s oldest rocks.” We’d add it’s also the proverbial Madison Square Garden of polar bear versus black bear prize fights to that description.
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