[Leica] Polar Bear Kill

[j2m46 at hotmail.fr (Jean-Michel Mertz)]

Just extraordinary!Jean-Michel
 > Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2012 10:56:51 +0530
> From: jayanand at gmail.com
> To: lug at leica-users.org; psm1857 at googlegroups.com; 
> batchofseventyfive at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Leica] Polar Bear Kill
> 
> The absolute highlight of the whole trip to the pack ice around
> Spitsbergen was to see and photograph a Polar Bear raid a seal nursery
> chamber successfully. I captured most of the action, but the D800E has
> one big limitation for action - low FPS, and even more than that,
> limited buffer capacity (mainly due to the huge files), and that came
> and bit me in the butt big time. I had purchased this body full aware
> of this limitation, but (very unreasonably) it still irritates! I had
> no time to switch to the D700, which would have effortlessly taken the
> whole sequence. Anyway, here goes - it was a Female Polar Bear with
> two cubs:
> 
> She stalked to figure out the exact location of the chamber:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1712.jpg.html
> 
> She just looked at the cubs, and they froze:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1714.jpg.html
> 
> She launched the first attack:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1717.jpg.html
> 
> She continued trying to breach the chamber, but failed:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1719.jpg.html
> 
> Then she tried to collapse the roof of the chamber:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1726.jpg.html
> 
> The first attempt failed:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1727.jpg.html
> 
> She launched a second attempt:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1728.jpg.html
> 
> It succeeded: 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1730.jpg.html
> 
> She disappeared into the nursery:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1733.jpg.html
> 
> She reappeared with the spoils, a Ringed Seal pup:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1736.jpg.html
> 
> Then the most surprising thing happened, she just grabbed the carcass
> and fled! We were told later that she probably thought that the ship
> was a gigantic animal, hell bent on stealing her kill - after all,
> within the Polar Bear hierarchy, size is paramount. She fled for a few
> kilometres, and all three starting eating in a hurry. By the time we
> caught up with them, the meal was substantially over:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1746_001.jpg.html
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/norway/Polar/Norway_20120705_1754.jpg.html
> 
> Please see LARGE.
> 
> Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome
> 
> Cheers
> Jayanand
> 
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