.. Hi .

Hey , anyone with any real experience with P bears , How do they stalk their prey , I know about them covering their nose , but do the hunt by scent or sight ????? Do they pay any attention to the wind . .. Thanks for any knowledgeable replies ..

i'm sure no expert, but i have watched them go to the local seal restaurant, for lunch on a few occasions. It would be my perception that they use both sight and smell, but smell would be the #1 sense. They do definitely circle to get down wind. However i believe their vision is much superior to say a griz, much of which may be because the black seal stick out so well against the white background.

Polar bears eat primarily Riged or Bearded seals....if they are still-hunting a seal breathing hole (found by smelling it out), they stand patiently with their back towards the sun and wait....when they smell the seal's breath when it comes up for air, it reaches it's paw in and pulls the seal out onto the ice. It then bites it's head to dispatch the seal. Other times they can smell a seal (be it a jeuvenile or adult) in "birth lairs"...kinda like a mini igloo made by the mother to give birth....the polar bear smells it's prey and pounces on the "lair" smashing it in upon the seal(s), then diner is served! Another method they use to hunt seal is spot and stalk, they'll sneack within 100 yds then belly crawl, if not seen, to about 30 - 40 ft, they then make a sudden rush to attack the seal before it can submerge back under the ice. Most bears only eat the blubber and skin, which contain the most calories, leaving the meat to other younger bears to scavenge. During summer months, the polar bear will eat from the dead carcasses of whales, walruses, seals etc. On land they also turn to muskox, reindeer/caribou, birs, eggs, rodents, shellfish, crabs, and even other polar bears. They also eat some plants like berries, roots, and kelp although these itmes make up very little of their diet. A lot of polar bears don't eat much in summer and live off of fat reserves built up in the more successful winter months.

The covering the nose thing...is documented, but not widely beleived as being an actual hunting technique....I'll leave the discussions on that for the actual biologists that study them.

I'd imagine during summer months when hunting on land, polar bears use all their senses just as a brown bear would.

Hope this answered your ?'s

Thanks for the replies . I find myself in the position of being unarmed in P bear country ... Just trying to get a handle on where to spend the bulk of my time looking ...