While we had 105 polar bear sightings in Kaktovik, we spent much more time with just a few of the bears. Sometimes it was because we only had a bear or two to follow. Other times it was because they would start running or swimming and we wanted to follow and watch them. Other times a certain bear would just do something very interesting and we stayed with it and watched for an extended time. Cuteness may have also played into it as some bears were just more worth watching. At any rate, these are some of the bears that we spent extended time watching. Extended time usually meant something like 45 minutes to well over an hour or even two hours.

“Scar” was a bear that we saw in the morning on our second day in Kaktovik. He was just sitting around at first, but then he stuck his nose up in the air (first photo) and started off walking at an extremely fast pace. We followed him along the sand spit for quite a while and we were sure that he was up to something. Scar eventually went over the crest of the sandspit to the back side bordering the Beaufort Sea. We could tell that he was eating something and our guide felt certain that he had found a dead seal on the beach. He ate for quite a while and he eventually came back over the crest of the sandspit to the lagoon side where we got more photos of him including the second photo. Another bear followed him and also ate some of the seal. We stayed with these bears and enjoyed watching them chase the seagulls away from the seal and enjoy a big meal. The bears looked quite satisfied after their meal.

We saw “Queen”, a mama bear, and her two one-year old cubs, “Statler and Waldorf” walking down the beach near us. The twins seemed to spend more time fighting with each other than with anything else. Soon, Mama went into the lagoon and started to swim and the twins followed. This was our first experience seeing the bears swimming. We followed this family on two swims. First they swam across the first lagoon. They rested a short while and then swam across the next lagoon to the bone yard. It was fun to watch the bears swim. Polar bears fur is hollow and so they float like an air mattress. They paddle with their front paws and steer with their back paws. It looks like someone on an air mattress just paddling along. They would rest and float and then start swimming again. The twins spent as much time fighting each other as they spent swimming, much to their mom’s consternation. She would stop and bark at them to start swimming again, which they did, but not for very long before they would start fighting again.

The three bears in the last photo, I named “Loretta, Moe, and Curly”. We saw them in the afternoon on our third day in Kaktovik. Momma is in front and her two two-year old or three-year old cubs are behind her. This was a good example of what we originally determined was one big sleeping bear. Eventually, we had to change our determination as we saw the second bear appear from the pile of fur. And yes, we had to change that determination again as the second cub woke up. We watched them wake up and eventually get up. Momma became aware of us at some point and didn’t seem to like our intrusion. We backed off in the boat but these three continued to entertain us for quite some time. They were just so cuddly.