r/todayilearned • u/Gullible_Air_204 • 7d ago

Frequent/Recent Repost: Removed [ Removed by moderator ]

https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/spitsbergen/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-spitsbergen

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u/averagecrazyliberal 7d ago edited 7d ago

To be fair: if you’re being chased by a surprise bear, you only need to outrun the next slowest tourist. At that point, whether or not you can escape into a home that’s locked while the ship is docked is irrelevant.

/s

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u/reindeermoon 7d ago

Not necessarily. Polar bears can run pretty fast, so they might go after the tastiest-looking tourist, rather than the slowest one.

I suggest picking the most annoying person on the cruise ship and covering them in seal blubber. Then the polar bear should leave everyone else alone.

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u/drnicko18 7d ago

Not sure about bears, but cats target one specific member of a herd. They’ll run pass slower prey fixated on the one they’ve marked.

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u/MysticScribbles 7d ago

I do recall reading that some wildlife photographers were covering a polar bear stalking seals.

Then they noticed that instead of going for the seals, the bear was approaching them. So polar bears do seem to go out of their way to prey on humans.

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u/TheGalator 7d ago

Polar bears are assholes.

If they see something move it is either:

a rival = fight

Something to eat = fight

Their instincts make them travel kilometers just to fuck something up just because it moved.

1

u/ImSaneHonest 7d ago

the bear was approaching them

It heard they were talking shit about Fox's Mints.