[Leica] Polar Bear Kill

[kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney)]

Jayanand,

Those are really great.  I have theD800e on my list also for later, even
though I will have to switch lenses to Nikon.

Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+kcarney1=cox.net at leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+kcarney1=cox.net at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of 
Jayanand
Govindaraj
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 12:27 AM
To: Leica Users Group; PSM; batchofseventyfive
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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