© Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Media
Casting a heart-stopping image over the melting sea ice this gigantic female polar bear rears up on her hind legs to scout her surroundings.
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In a stunning never before seen series she is just one of several bears captured by wildlife photographer Steve Kaslowski during an expedition to Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago last month.
And in a shocking twist to the recent plight of the magnificent mammals, an expert on the region believes the several bears pictured in Steve’s new collection is evidence that Svalbard’s polar bear population is on the increase.
© Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Media
Marine mammal expert and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) spokesperson, Dr Tom Arnbom, 50, from Stockholm, Sweden, thinks the bears in these images could be part of only two growing populations in the world.
He said: “There are 19 populations of polar bears on the planet. At present we know that eight are decreasing, three are stable, seven we are not sure about, and the only one we know for sure that is growing is in Canada.
“But it is my personal opinion that the bear numbers in Svalbard are increasing. Compared with the last 20 years we are getting many more reports of sightings and it could be a sign that their numbers are up.
“The difficulty is that monitoring populations is extremely difficult because they are very hard to find and very expensive to follow so it is difficult to get hard data. But the signs are that there are more of them in Svalbard than we have seen over the last few years.”
© Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Media
Despite rapidly shrinking sea-ice – the bear’s summer hunting ground – Tom, who has been visiting the region for several years, thinks a ban on hunting bears and their prey may be causing their number to increase.
“There is no doubt the sea-ice is shrinking,” he said. “Data suggests global temperatures around the world have increased by 0.7 degrees (Celsius) on average and the rise could be even greater in the Arctic at two degrees.
“But while their hunting ground is shrinking, Norway has enforced strict hunting bans on the bears and some of their prey since the 1970s.
“Walrus numbers are up since the ban on their hunting in 1952 and it could be the reason we are seeing more bears. There is more prey.”
Giving a stunning insight into the behaviour of the gigantic animals and their current behaviour in Svalbard, Steve, from Seattle, America, witnessed several mesmerising events featuring several bears he will never forget.
Magic moments caught on camera included a lone female napping patiently while she waited for air-desperate seals to pop up through the ice. Just a few days later he watched open-mouthed as four huge males savagely fought over a whale carcass.
© Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Media
The 40-year-old photographer, who specialises in arctic wildlife, got up close and personal during his voyage navigating around hazardous ice islands.
His incredible six-week journey inland was made possible by boat- worthy channels opening up between warming sheets of ice. The frozen Arctic Ocean is currently breaking apart due to rising summer temperatures.
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities included this nosey female coming to within inches of his face as he sat on the edge of his live-aboard yacht, ‘Zodiac’.
“She was a young adolescent and they always seem to be more inquisitive than some of the older bears who know to avoid humans,” he said.
“She kept rearing up on her hind legs and sniffing at us. She was really investigating and trying to work out what we were doing there.
“Getting as close as this to these animals is what I get up for in the morning. It’s when all the work you have been doing comes together into that single perfect moment.”
© Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Media
Just seconds later the boisterous female was bounding across the rapidly disintegrating ice in search of seals.
In another of his captivating series of pictures he photographed the same bear fast asleep next to one of her feeding holes.
Just yards behind her the blurry shape of a seal throwing her a worried glance casts a vivid image of life on the remote chilly outcrop.
Words by Liam Miller
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