{"id":257243,"date":"2023-05-13T15:30:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T13:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=257243"},"modified":"2023-05-13T15:30:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-13T13:30:49","slug":"roald-amundsen-tried-and-failed-to-tame-a-polar-bear-cub-in-1920","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=257243","title":{"rendered":"Roald Amundsen tried and failed to tame a polar bear cub in 1920"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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no-nb_bldsa_NPAA1802 001<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From polarbearscience<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A short account of polar explorer\u00a0Roald Amundsen\u2019<\/a>s failed attempt to tame a polar bear cub he had bought in May 1920 from a trader in the\u00a0Russian Far East<\/a>\u00a0appears today in the\u00a0Barents Observer<\/a><\/em>. The cub was likely captured after its mother was killed, which was a\u00a0common practice<\/a>\u00a0at a time when polar bears were being slaughtered wholesale throughout the Arctic (Crockford 2019; Honderich 1991; Stirling 2011).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It only took a month for Amundsen<\/a> to give up his experiment. Below are some excerpts; read the full account here<\/a>. More photos are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, during Roald Amundsen\u2019s voyage through the Northeast Passage, Georg Kibisow from the Russian Trading Company came aboard Amundsen\u2019s ship, the Maud. He brought along a polar bear cub that he had caught near Kolyma. He offered the cub to Amundsen, who bought it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roald Amundsen named the polar bear cub Marie. He gave her a lot of attention in the hope of taming her so she could pull a sledge. Marie features a lot in Amundsen\u2019s expedition diary and he followed her development closely. Here is a sample of what Amundsen wrote:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy to make friends with Marie, but it might work. I carry her now, whenever I want, but I have to make sure I hold onto her head so she can\u2019t bite me. She is constantly fighting with the dogs. This little critter has no fear.<\/em>[and later]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I chloroformed Marie to death this morning. I had to abandon any hopes of training her. After grooming and feeding her for a month, this morning, when I brought her milk, she came at me in a ferocious rage. In the hands of an experienced trainer she might have become a bit friendlier, but I had to give up.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a map of the Kolyma district <\/a>in the Russian Far East, which is essentially the drainage of the Kolyma River. The Kolyma River ends in a broad delta<\/a> that empties into the East Siberian Sea, near the boundary with the Chukchi Sea. Winters in this region are extremely cold and is where most Arctic sea ice forms (Crockford 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A fuller account of his\u00a0Northeast Passage voyage<\/a>\u00a0is here, with more photos, including this one of Marie the polar bear cub in May 1920, and with one of the dog teams in October 1919:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crockford, S.J. 2019.<\/strong> The Polar Bear Catastrophe That Never Happened<\/em>. Global Warming Policy Foundation, London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crockford, S.J. 2022.<\/strong> Polar bear fossil and archaeological records from the Pleistocene and Holocene in relation to sea ice extent and open water polynyas. Open Quaternary<\/em> 8(7):1\u201326.  https:\/\/doi.org.10.5334\/oq.107<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honderich, J.E. 1991.<\/strong> Wildlife as a hazardous resource: an analysis of the historical interaction of humans and polar bears in the Canadian arctic. MA thesis, University of Waterloo, Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stirling, I. 2011.<\/strong> Polar Bears: The Natural History of a Threatened Species. <\/em>Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Markham, Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roald Amundsen named the polar bear cub Marie. He gave her a lot of attention in the hope of taming her so she could pull a sledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":257252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818162,691818601,691819528,691818189,691818745,691819527],"class_list":["post-257243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arctic-warming","tag-chukchi-sea","tag-kolyma-river","tag-northeast-passage","tag-polar-bear","tag-polar-bear-cub-marie","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0Maud-01-05-1919.jpg?fit=2000%2C1389&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-14V5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":237713,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=237713","url_meta":{"origin":257243,"position":0},"title":"Where were the starving W. 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The shore of WH near Churchill should have been abounding with starving bears in 2020 (and in 2015), if the experts were right about starving bears preceding a population decline.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-118.png?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-118.png?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-118.png?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-118.png?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":272323,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=272323","url_meta":{"origin":257243,"position":1},"title":"Climate activists are silent on polar bears because their doom-mongering blew up in their faces","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"While there is an admission that the\u00a0over-hyped lies about starving bears\u00a0promoted by National Geographic\u00a0in 2017 and 2018 were a factor, there is no mention in the article of the\u00a0well-known, documented evidence\u00a0of scientists\u2019 own\u00a0failed assumptions\u00a0that polar bears require summer sea ice for survival have had any impact on public opinion","rel":"","context":"In \"Chukchi sea\"","block_context":{"text":"Chukchi sea","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=chukchi-sea"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":254453,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=254453","url_meta":{"origin":257243,"position":2},"title":"Netflix polar bear star dies in Svalbard days after being tranquilized; her orphaned cub is shot","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/24\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Early in the morning on Good Friday (7 April), a mature polar bear sow with a cub at heal was chased with snowmobiles away from a recreation area used by locals on the west coast but drowned after she escaped into the water. 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