Svein Wik - Nature Photographer

I am thinking about all the hundreds, maybe more than thousand, encounters I have had on Svalbard with polar bears :) These powerful animals which so many people fear and say they are so dangerous. For me it has been the best experiences in my life. We have never disturbed them. Mostly they have been sleeping half of the time. We never ended up in any dangerous situations. Mostly because we never wanted to go on land risking meeting one there. Personally I have learned a lot about wildlife and polar bears by doing this. We have never seen any aggressive polar bears trying to come closer to us during all the years. None of the 1000 polar bears tried to climb onboard our ship(because that is impossible). And none of them hunted us.
I will not say I am an expert on polar bears but I have for sure observed many of them and felt their presence. I look at that as some important knowledge about the animal.
This bear was seen in late April on its walk up north on Svalbard.
We are continuing doing trips and we will be able to see polar bears also in the future.