Friday

In 1992, in a sled dog kennel outside of Manitoba, Canada, a very unusual event took place one day. Nature photographer Norbert Rosing, whose work has appeared in National Geographic and other magazines just happened to be visiting that day. The kennel consisted of 40 Canadian Eskimo sled dogs and they were owned by breeder Brian Ladoon.

During the visit a very large male polar bear all of a sudden came out of the blue and began to approach one of the dogs. As the other dogs began barking wildly at the bear, this particular dog stood his ground and began to wag his tail. Polars bears and dogs are natural enemies so the two men were quite taken aback as the bear and the dog began to gently touch each others noses and began to make friends with each other.

As all of this was going on, a second large polar bear also approached another one of Ladoon's dogs. This time the dog rolled on his back and the two began to wrestle like children. Photographer Rosing began to snap photos of the unusual encounter as normally polar bears act quite aggressively towards dogs. For the next 10 days in a row, the bears returned to play with the dogs and then were gone.

No one knows for sure why these bears acted outside of their normal behavior and made friends with the dogs but both dogs and bears are very social creatures naturally. Maybe it is best to just remember that many times animals can be quite full of wonderful surprises.


Video: Polar bears and dogs playing


Responses to "Wild polar bears play with husky dogs (Video)"

  1. Anonymous says:

    Not impressed. One swift swipe of those large paws or one massive nip from those jaws and in an instant a dog can lose is life. Polar bears are still very wild animals. I would not take any chances no matter how calm they seem.

  2. abelyssah says:

    Made me uncomfortable too really is not fair w chains -the light dog -/+ 1:50 seemed very compromised and uncomfortable. =|

  3. Anonymous says:

    God Sake stop commplaining.
    Enjoy the video for once in your lives, you downers.
    They are getting along fine.
    Geeez...

    Such a cute video :)

  4. Anonymous says:

    If there had been a problem the dogs would have acted accordingly I dont think they were just being polite. And Im sure the people around werent taking any chances either.

    Its fantastic what happened and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it

  5. Anonymous says:

    Animals who roll over onto their back are showing submissive behavior. Maybe the pair lost their cubs and were using the dogs to ease the pain. Nature is so much more powerful than man can imagine, we should take a few hints from this. Not saying walk up to a polar bear but wouldn't hurt to befriend people different from ourselves.

  6. CaptainSakonna says:

    Our border collie cross used to play with my kitten, back when they were both young. She would engulf his whole head in her mouth without biting down. She could have killed him easily, but never hurt him. Who says polar bears can't do the same? I do agree that the dog at 1:28 looked like he was being "loved" a little too much for his liking, though.

  7. Anonymous says:

    This page from bear.org has an article from Outside magazine about these bears and huskies. It is informative.

    http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/polar-bear/22-/200-polar-bears-and-dogs.html

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