People who have been coming to the forum for awhile will remember that I wrote an article about the grizzly bears of the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia. A Canadian man and woman went to live with these wild bears that had not been habituated to humans. They wanted to see if they and the bears could co-exist in a mutually friendly relationship, and they proved it was possible, and even delightful.
I regret to have to tell you this next news. The bears they knew, with their varied personalities and their friendly and even loving interactions with the people were later all killed by gall-bladder hunters. These poachers kill grizzly bears only for that one internal organ, the gall bladder, and possibly for their paws. Maybe their teeth, but I haven't read of that. Bear gall is considered to be a stomach remedy in some Asian countries. It is a great pity because the bears need to be preserved.
As I said, I have a fond spot in my heart for bears, and in fact for many other animals both large and very small. However, where bears live near human settlements or have been hunted, it is not safe to try to have anything to do with them. They have been spoiled for such a relationship with friendly humans, as was possible in Kamchatka.
Today I read more about bears, but these bears were Polar Bears that live in our Canadian high Arctic, in the district of Inuktitut.
Scientists went there to search on an offshore Inuktitut island for dinosaur bones. They found the bones, too. Imagine! Once that area was tropical, and large and small dinosaurs of various kinds roamed there. Today, one of the largest predators that lives there is the Polar Bear, called by the Inuit, "Nanuk" This name means the one with "deep patience." The Inuit themselves have deep patience.
The scientists had to sleep, and so set one of their number each night to guard their tent from any marauding bears. Polar bears are very skillful in hunting. One came within metres of their camp and no one saw it until it decided it wasn't interested in them, and went on by. They later saw that same bear catch and kill a special bird that is so shy that they weren't even able to get pictures of it with a 500 mm lens. When they saw that, they realized they could never have escaped that bear if he had wanted to attack. The most interesting part of the story for me is the next paragraph, and it is the kind of thing that makes me love the bears.
A polar bear will build an ice wall beside a seal's breathing hole. Then it will patiently watch and wait behind the wall. When the time comes for it to sneak up on a seal, it does it very carefully, making its way on three legs. It holds the big white paw of its fourth leg up in front of its black nose so the seal won't see it coming. Isn't that an amazing sight to imagine?
When I was at Point Barrow in the most northern part of the American Arctic at I obtained some "Eskimo yo-yos" (a toy). Part of them was of polar bear fur. It was very white, and also sparkled. I could see that you could easily walk right up to a polar bear that was lurking or sleeping on the ice on sparkling icy snow before you would ever see it. Even while holding it in my hand it looks rather icy! It is quite beautiful. The sparkle comes because the fur isn't totally straight. It has a very very slight crinkle that allows it to shine, and is a little transparent and pure white, and a rather stiff.
Why people make war with nature I don't know. I think we should view our relationship more like that of the Canadian couple who had wonderful times with the bears, yet were careful, and knew what they were doing. Or else maybe we should say that we "dance with nature", meaning that we cooperatively move together in a beautiful way.
I hope to see us advance some day to that stage. Of course, the floods and fires and typhoons and cyclones and tornados are very dangerous. However, if we maintain things properly in our forests and respect them, if we build properly for these hazards, if we pray for help from God when faced with troubles, if we don't have poor people living in rickety buildings, if we build for local conditions, we would be dancing with nature. We would live with it as they lived with the fierce, wild bears, in joy and delight.
Loving greetings, Mary
