How Did They Know ?

[Hervé]

Lunch arrives on Wrangel Island, and 230 polar bears show up for the feast

By The Siberian Times reporter
29 September 2017

A bowhead whale beached on the remote outpost in the Arctic Ocean, and the news spread fast among the island's bears.

Just like a flock of sheep, more than 200 bears gather for a feast on the Wrangel Island. Picture: A Gruzdev

From a distance to tourists on passing ship Akademik Shokalskiy, it looked like a flock of sheep, but it soon became evident these were ravenous polar bears feasting on an unexpected meal.

Nature reserve rangers on the remote island calculated there were no less than 230 polar bears arriving to devour the food.

They included single males, single females, mothers with cubs and even two mothers with four cubs each.

The sight was un unexpected bonanza for tourists on the Finnish-built vessel on part of an epic Arctic voyage from Murmansk to Adadyr in Chukotka.

Information on this unique gathering has been passed to the international scientific group that monitors Chukotka and Alaska's population of polar bears. Picture: A Gruzdev

The group had made a layover on the island, famous as the last place on the planet inhabited by the extinct woolly mammoth.

Information on this unique gathering has been passed to the international scientific group that monitors Chukotka and Alaska's population of polar bears.

Members of the group and staff of the Wrangel island nature reserve continue observations of this unusual polar bear conclave.

The island lies in the Arctic Ocean between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea.
Members of the group and staff of the Wrangel island nature reserve continue observations of this unusual polar bear conclave.

Pictures below: The Wrangel Island Nature Reserve

[Matt P]

According to this source they can smell a seal up to 20 miles away.

http://www.saveyupi.com/facts-about-...-Hearing-Smell

Matt

[Mike]

I keep looking at the bears in the background. I wonder what they're thinking. It's like the human equivalent of driving by a good coffee shop and seeing a long line at the drive thru and thinking "should i?".

I know nothing about the behavior of polar bears, but they seem remarkably well behaved. No one appears to be attacking anyone else. It's almost civil.

Perhaps suicide was on the whales' mind during the beaching, but I don't think getting eaten alive by polar bears was ever part of the plan. I wonder, do whales get scared? Entertain regrets? What was going thru that whales mind during all this?

[Ewan]

I did a little digging...

Wrangle Island is a breeding ground for Polar Bears. An article claimed 'a dead bowhead whale washed up on a beach.', so I would suggest the smell attracted them. How far would the scent of rotting meat travel in the arctic winds?

A polar bear has one of the best noses in the entire world and are well known to have an incredible sense of smell. Polar bears have been seen walking in a straight line for 32km (20 miles) to food, with only their nose to guide them. Polar bears have also sniffed out a seal ten football fields away that was hidden under 1m (3') of ice.

The normal ranging area for a Polar Bear is..

Polar bear home ranges are typically larger than those of other mammals due to the seasonal and yearly transience of the ice. The prevalence of food, mates, and dens within a particular area may also determine the size of a home range. Bears near the Canadian Arctic Islands have relatively small home ranges—19,305-23,166 sq miles (50,000-60,000 sq. km). Bears that live in proximity to Bering and Chukchi Seas often have larger territories that can be up to 135,135 sq miles (350,000 sq. km). Polar bears do not mark their territory or aggressively guard it.

The area of Wrangel Island is 'about 125 km (78 mi) wide and 7,600 km2 (2,900 sq mi) in area.' Apparently a fraction of the usual range a bear will travel in search of food.

Polar bears can travel thousands of miles yearly, swimming and walking, following the pack ice to hunt. Polar bears are excellent swimmers. They can swim at speeds of up to 6 mph, and can swim continuously for 62 miles (100 km). Some have been observed swimming 200 miles (320 km) from land.

Of course this is a marvelous opportunity to take a photograph of a bear and claim it is close to drowning because of global warming, In fact searching bear stranded on ice global warming will immediately load lots of images many of which link to articles telling you pretty much this very thing.

After catching a seal, polar bears will consume the fat and skin first, often leaving the rest of the meat for other animals like Arctic foxes, ravens, Arctic gulls, and smaller bears, to scavenge. The fat is eaten before the rest of the meat for several reasons. Not only is fat easier for the bears to digest, but it also contains more calories, which makes for more efficient eating. In addition, the process of digesting protein requires water from the body, whereas the digestion of fat actually releases water. This allows the metabolism of the bears to function without the need to drink water, which they do not do.

Because polar bears usually eat little to nothing during the summer, this period of fasting is entirely normal and an event most of the bears are well equipped to endure (as long as they were able to consume lots of seals in the spring).

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bears...ct-sheet/7053/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrangell_Islands
https://polarbearscience.com/2017/10...to-dead-whale/

[Apulu]

Nice one bears.

This reminds me of a story my Aunt and Uncle told me about their local orca population, that annually visit the waters around Vancouver island, where they live. Marine biologists had become concerned that the population of male orcas was steadily declining. They kept an accurate record of every individual orca that regularly visited the area. It sounded as if it was one large pod they were monitoring. The biologists were telling the local papers that if something wasn't done, then they would expect the pod to vanish sooner or later.

The situation was not something anyone could think of a solution for; I think they were, however, seriously considering if there might be a solution. Seemingly, out of the deep, deep blue, a never-before-seen group of males turned up, and saved the population. This left the scientists scratching their heads, in happy wonderment.

How did they know? And how do a group of males from another pod organise themselves to go and help? Who decides who gets to go on this mission?!

[Foxie Loxie]

Amazing story, Apulu! Thanks for sharing it!

[enigma3]

The more we know the more we realize how little we know.

Not that many years ago a man who lived in South Africa and took care of elephants died. He spent his entire adult life protecting the elephants from poachers and was highly thought of. Soon after he died, various packs of elephants showed up at his house to pay their respects. They would file by and trumpet their grief as they passed. These groups of elephants came from all over South Africa and were separated by up to hundreds of miles. Yet they all came to this man's home to express their grief. How did they know? How did the elephants communicate over such long distances to spread the word? I have always thought that to be one of the most amazing stories I have heard. It made the national news, and rightly so.
The elephants knew. But how?

[Foxie Loxie]

Seems as though the empathy that is shared is a "real" thing that connects all beings!

[sigma6]

Posted by enigma3 (here)
The more we know the more we realize how little we know.

Not that many years ago a man who lived in South Africa and took care of elephants died. He spent his entire adult life protecting the elephants from poachers and was highly thought of. Soon after he died, various packs of elephants showed up at his house to pay their respects. They would file by and trumpet their grief as they passed. These groups of elephants came from all over South Africa and were separated by up to hundreds of miles. Yet they all came to this man's home to express their grief. How did they know? How did the elephants communicate over such long distances to spread the word? I have always thought that to be one of the most amazing stories I have heard. It made the national news, and rightly so.
The elephants knew. But how?

I agree about the pursuit of knowledge.. what a frightening inescapable truth... re: the elephants, I have heard they make a low vibration sound that can't be heard by humans... that can travel many miles through the ground (or was it air?) this world we live in... so profoundly elegant in its complexity...

[Spiral]

How did they know ? Remote viewing & the morphic field.

That's what my dog does & I shouldn't imagine they are much different.

The morphic fields of social groups connect together members of the group even when they are many miles apart, and provide channels of communication through which organisms can stay in touch at a distance. They help provide an explanation for telepathy. There is now good evidence that many species of animals are telepathic, and telepathy seems to be a normal means of animal communication,

From https://www.sheldrake.org/research/m...e/introduction

[Ewan]

Posted by sigma6 (here)

Posted by enigma3 (here)
The more we know the more we realize how little we know.

Not that many years ago a man who lived in South Africa and took care of elephants died. He spent his entire adult life protecting the elephants from poachers and was highly thought of. Soon after he died, various packs of elephants showed up at his house to pay their respects. They would file by and trumpet their grief as they passed. These groups of elephants came from all over South Africa and were separated by up to hundreds of miles. Yet they all came to this man's home to express their grief. How did they know? How did the elephants communicate over such long distances to spread the word? I have always thought that to be one of the most amazing stories I have heard. It made the national news, and rightly so.
The elephants knew. But how?

I agree about the pursuit of knowledge.. what a frightening inescapable truth... re: the elephants, I have heard they make a low vibration sound that can't be heard by humans... that can travel many miles through the ground (or was it air?) this world we live in... so profoundly elegant in its complexity...

Elephants can 'hear' with their feet.

@Spiral: I was going to mention Sheldrake myself earlier, personally feel he's onto something real.

There is a plant, the Giant Wilow Herb, which some Victorian gardeners took a fancy too. They had no success in acclimatising it though, with the few that did take being poor, straggly and soon dying off. The gardeners gave up.
The plant did not though, these days it is so common in wastelands and damp places it has been classified a weed. I believe all it took was for one plant to succeed and then they all 'knew' how to.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Posted by Ewan (here)
@Spiral: I was going to mention Sheldrake myself earlier, personally feel he's onto something real.

Definitely, I've long been a supporter of his research. It goes far beyond smell or any physical sense, animals are linked in ways most of us cannot understand. They operate on some level as 'a collective'. And it demonstrates how Humans - we are animals too - have become separated from the Earth and the rest of the animal kingdoms, because collective consciousness is something we once had, but have lost to a large degree.

Slightly off topic, but check this amazing murmuration of starlings. They move as one, one animal, one collective, one consciousness.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=V4f_1_r80RY