In August 2020, a biologist named Izabela Kulaszewicz, together with the other scientists from the University of Gdańsk, hurried outside as she received a message that a polar bear was spotted. The scientists were stationed at the Polish Polar Station Hornsund on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.
This is an unexpected sighting. Luckily, the cook at the research station was able to film everything: a chunky female polar bear was sniffing the air and walking towards the coast, dipping in the tundra, and then galloping towards several reindeers on the shoreline. The bull went to the sea but the polar bear was able to catch and kill it. The reindeer was dead in less than a minute.
Kulaszewicz and the rest of the team were shocked because polar bears usually hunt seals. Polar bear’s behavior of hunting of reindeer, however, has long been assumed especially because of climate change. To be able to survive, polar bears would have to adjust to the changing environment which forced them to hunt and eat those that they do not usually eat such as bird eggs, rodents, trash, and landfills.