A Canadian town of 900, where car doors are kept unlocked and all citizens walk around with two heavy rocks in their pocket. Why? Because Churchill, on the west coast of the ice-choked Hudson Bay, lies directly in the polar bear community’s annual migration route.

For six weeks in October and November every year, dozens of polar bears roam Churchill’s outskirts, as they impatiently wait for the sea ice to reform. Churchill has been dubbed “the polar bear capital of the world” and ranks first for tourism, with 10,000 polar bear hunters (with their eyes, not guns) visiting yearly.

Since 1982, only one person has been killed by a polar bear here, a homeless man who was rummaging in a dumpster only to feel a huge shadow descend on him. However, it’s perfectly common to pull back your curtains at 9am only to find a polar bear’s head staring back at you. Churchill residents have endless stories, including bears stuck in hospital doors, and miraculously scaring bears away with their cellphone light. Polar bears rummaging in bins and casually walking the streets are a common sight.

Churchill has become particularly infamous for its polar bear jail. The town’s first defence is guards who fire loud cracker shells, but the most nuisance bears are darted, tranquillised and held for thirty days before being drugged and airlifted by helicopter back onto the sea ice. The bears are also starved in the jail, to imprint the dangers of Churchill onto their brain.

Churchill is the most accessible polar bear viewing spot on Earth. Times have changed since the 1970s, when scientists would crouch on the tundra all night cradling shotguns; now you can ride the outskirts of Churchill in an iron-coloured, double decker, bus-sized tundra buggy.

However, it still feels like the polar bears own Churchill sometimes. Just remember that the town is only accessible by train and helicopters. Green coloured signs reading “POLAR BEAR ALERT. Stop! Don’t walk in this area” are dotted everywhere, with strangely innocent looking polar bear pictures.

Possibly the last place on Earth where woolly mammoths survived, clinging on until 4500 years ago compared to 10000 on the Siberian mainland. Wrangel Island has a storied history too; when the US ship Karluk sank in 1914 and its survivors dispersed onto the sea ice, Wrangel Island is where five men headed for refuge (their starved bodies were discovered later).

Today though, the place is swarming with polar bears. In fact, this icy, mountainous island has the highest density of polar bear breeding dens of anywhere on Earth. Wrangel Island contains a big chunk of the Barents sea polar bear subpopulation, which numbers 2500 bears.

Originally, Wrangel Island had two weatherbeaten permanent settlements, but in 1972, the Soviet Union declared the island to be a nature reserve and relocated them. Since then, polar bear numbers have been climbing. 500-570 were spotted in 2017 compared to 200-300 in previous years. The polar bears are so confident that Russia’s scientific research stations have windows equipped with iron bars to prevent break-ins. The rangers have to carry pepper spray and flare guns at all times.

In 2017, a tourist ship was sailing the icy outskirts of Wrangel Island, when it spotted a dead bowhead whale on the shore. Soon, no less than 230 polar bears arrived to feast on its carcass. You’ll find polar bears relaxing on Wrangel Island from mid-August to November as they wait for the ice to reform, accompanied by 100,000 Pacific walruses and thousands of seals. The polar bear shares the inner island with only one land mammal, the Arctic fox.

5000 years ago, polar bears and woolly mammoths lived side by side on Wrangel Island. Today, it’s the bears who are in command.

There was a time when Arviat was an isolated human settlement with a smattering of polar bears, but nowadays, Arviat is the opposite. Arviat is a small village of 2500 people in Manitoba region of Canada, with bowhead whales, seals, and arctic foxes galore. It’s part of the Hudson bay population, which numbered 840 in 2016, but locals insist that polar bears have boomed since 2000.

Nowadays, it’s perfectly normal in Arviat to witness a polar bear mother playing with her cubs on the distant ice. Hunting cabins are constantly fearful of bears poking their noses in. Trick or treat was once popular on Halloween in Arviat, and so was autumn berry picking, but unlike 50 years ago, you can now see white, fluffy bears walking the streets daily in autumn.

The invasion came to a head in 2010 and 2011, when 11 polar bears were shot dead in self defence. Since then, locals have invented solutions like relocating frozen meat into indoor steel containers indoors instead of simply storing meat on their roofs. There’s also an FM radio which is constantly being interrupted to announce new sightings, and a WWF-appointed guard called Leo who patrols the town with spotlights and bangers.

Miraculously, in the last 20 years, only one man has been killed, a hero who screamed his lungs out to distract a polar bear from mauling a girl in 2018.

The reason for this bear mania is identical to Churchill: its location on Hudson Bay’s west coast, causing polar bears to accumulate in October and November. Superstitious local hunters believe that if you shoot a polar bear’s head with a rifle but miss, the polar bear will give you a headache lasting for days. Arviat village elder Johnny Kartek once stated that “bears attack down the family line, like a curse”.

Svalbard is the northernmost settlement in Norway, and it’s obvious why – it’s the northernmost settlement the polar bears will allow. Svalbard is a collection of islands deep within the Arctic circle, and contains a big fraction of the Barents sea polar bear population.

The bears in Svalbard actually increased from 685 in 2004 to 975 in 2015. They aren’t starving, straggly bears either; these days, they’re supposedly “fat as pigs“. Hunting on Svalbard was once rampant, but in 1973, a law was passed protecting them. On Svalbard, you can only shoot a polar bear in strict self defence, and are forced to report to the governor afterwards.

Shootings of polar bears have thus plummeted in recent decades, allowing the bear population to keep on growing. Since 1971, only 5 people have been killed by bears. In 1971, 1977, and 1995, the victim wasn’t carrying a weapon, while in 1995 (a different attack), the victim was carrying a tiny pistol. Pictures of polar bears with their faces pressed against windows are a dime a dozen, but overall, this popular tourist destination coexists fairly peacefully.

Cruise ships are constantly sailing past, with people on deck desperately trying to get a glimpse of bears as they prowl the coastline searching for seals and dead whales. Along with Churchill, Svalbard is the most popular polar bear tourism destination in the world. Svalbard has dozens of islands, but the most polar bear packed region is King Karls Land, with twelve dens per square kilometre.

Svalbard has strict regulations. All cruise ships are required to have a special polar bear guard aboard. On land, it is mandatory to carry a gun outside of the population capital Longyearbyen. Shops in the township even have special deposit boxes for storing your gun.

Barter Island is a frigid slab of ice located directly above Alaska’s north coast and Kaktovik is its biggest settlement, the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the USA and a former cold war missile defence outpost. Once, those inhabitants were mostly humans. Today, they’re mostly polar bears.

It only takes a two minute walk away from this 270 strong settlement to find dozens of polar bears gathering on the beaches. They spend October and November each year waiting for the sea ice to reconnect the Alaskan mainland, but like in Arviat, they’ve recently been venturing into the ramshackle, traditional Inuit town more and more.

Local guides are forced to patrol the streets, armed with shotguns containing cracker shells and non-lethal lead bullets called beanbags. One reason is the federally protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is immediately south of Kaktovik and is paradise on earth for polar bears who just want to roam the snow and eat seals.

The local Inuit culture also plays a role. Wildlife organisations want to preserve whales, but each year, they allow Inuit hunters to kill 3 bowhead whales in Kaktovik using traditional methods. This happens in autumn, and the oh so tasty carcasses attract polar bears from far and wide.

In the 1990s, Kaktovik attracted 50 human tourists per year. By 2011, they were attracting 2000. Crafty local Inuits have started to rake in money by offering guided tours.

Kaktovik is a bleak place, the end of the road for human civilisation, with no roads beyond the airfield and buildings constructed from abandoned shipping containers. The polar bears just add to the experience. As for deaths? Somehow, none have been reported for decades, but in July 2019, a man was charged with shooting dead a polar bear which climbed into his backyard to snatch some whale meat he had accidentally left there.

If history takes a weird turn over the next century and humans and polar bears engage in an all-out war for Arctic supremacy, then Belushya Guba will be remembered as the first battle.

In February 2019, this Russian town of 560 hit headlines globally when 52 polar bears invaded its streets. As the easternmost point in Europe, and the northernmost settlement in Russia, located on the Arctic Novaya Zemlya islands, Belushya Guba constantly has polar bears on its outskirts. But that months, dozens showed up at once.

They invaded residential and government buildings, blocked parents’ paths to the kindergarten, and rummaged through bins all over towns. 52 bears were spotted over two months, and local administrator Vigansha Musin claimed that he had “never been such a mass invasion of polar bears”.

Adding to the problems was Russia’s total ban on shooting polar bears unless in extreme self defence. A polar bear sitting innocently on a bench in the local park doesn’t qualify under Belushya Guba’s laws. At first, the military patrolled the town with cracker bombs, but the polar bears quickly realised that the ammo was harmless and continued their invasion.

One video showed a polar bear breaking into an apartment block next to an empty pushchair. Another showed an oblivious man strolling right past a giant polar bear. One optician even recorded a polar bear outside his clinic banging on the doors.

Despite the town’s population largely being military personnel connected to Russian nuclear testing, the polar bears assumed total control. Stray dogs were released to scare the bears away, which failed, and mass honking of car horns also didn’t work. As the weather darkened, the polar bears began blending in with the snow. Special buses were ultimately deployed to ferry kids to school.

Resolute Bay is the sort of place where school can be cancelled for the day due to rampaging polar bear mobs. Its Inuit name translates to “place with no dawn”, its population is 200, and it’s located in Canada’s Nunavat district, with a storied history as a resting post for the epic northwest passage expeditions of yore. Resolute Bay looks like a setting from The Thing; it’s one the world’s coldest settlements and its polar bear, seal and beluga whale populations are correspondingly high.

In 2014, Amanda Anaviapik headed to the grocery store in the midst of a blizzard to buy some junk food. Suddenly, she heard two large heavy footprints behind her and dogs growling. She span around, only to scream with terror at the sight of colossal white polar bear. Luckily, the scream spooked the bear so much that it instantly fled; Anaviapik did likewise.

Resolute Bay is a place where almost everyone has their own story like this. Like Arviat, Inuit locals claim that polar bears are multiplying. Resolute Bay is part of the Lancaster Sound region and in 1979, polar bear numbers were estimated at 1675. In 1998, that had increased to 2457. Who knows what could have happened since?

This study has some fascinating statistics: out of the 24 Nunavat communities where self defence polar bear kills happened between 1970 and 2000, Resolute Bay had 16% of them.

In 2003 in Resolute Bay, humans and polar bears came face to face 146 times between September and November. In 142, the polar bear was scared away with deterrents like shouting, throwing rocks, cracker shells, rubber bullets or vehicles. In 28 out of 31 interactions where the cause was actually determined, the polar bears were lured in by the smell of food. Only 4 of 146 bears in Resolute were shot dead, which is still a massive total for just two or three months.

With the Lancaster Sound’s healthy polar bear population, the polar bear citadel of Resolute Bay won’t be changing any time soon.

Russia’s answer to Svalbard, a polar bear-packed archipelago of 192 snowy Arctic islands, except even more remote and even less inhabited. Franz Josef land is only 560 miles away from the North Pole, closer than anywhere else in Eurasia. It’s part of the same polar bear subpopulation as Svalbard, the Barents Sea group, and they patrol most of the islands in the archipelago.

As Franz Josef Land is part of Russia’s Arctic National Park, tourist visits are almost never permitted. But when they are, guides must carry flare guns and automatic weapons at all times. Only a handful of buildings exist in Franz Josef Land, with no permanent settlements. When tourists visit, it’s perfectly common for them to climb to the top of a snowy hill, only to look around and see 5 polar bears circling them, forcing them to escape with a bright, fiery flare gun. The polar bears here are so distant from civilisation that they have no fear of humans and treat us as prey.

For us, Franz Josef Land is a bleak wasteland. For polar bears, it’s the equivalent of a tropical oasis, with arctic foxes, seals, and whales galore to feast on. The exact number of polar bears is a mystery, as Russia refuses to release the data, but bears are visibly everywhere, and healthy and fat too.

Franz Josef Land was also the site of an old Nazi base which was abandoned in 1944 after the scientists ate polar bear meat and got sick with trichinosis. Incredibly, this base was only discovered in 2016, but the polar bears have probably had the knowledge for years. Theoretically, the polar bears might have ran the Nazis out of town.

This Canadian Inuit hamlet has a beloved tradition – fermenting walrus meat on the shoreline. Consequently, they also have a tradition of being attacked by polar bears.

Hall Beach is the oldest known settlement located inside the Arctic circle, with a population of 742 and 92% Inuit. In January, the average temperature is -32C, while in July, the figure is 6C. Polar bears are a daily sighting in autumn, so much so that for local citizens, seeing a sheep would be just as amazing as a polar bear would be for an Englishman.

Once more, the Inuit locals claim that polar bears are more numerous nowadays, and statistics back them up; polar bear numbers in the Fox Basin region increased from 2300 in 1994 to 2580 in 2009-2010. There’s so many polar bears that in 2013, Hall Beach had its hunting quota stripped after shooting dead three female polar bears which strayed into the village. They lodged a court case, arguing that it was self defence and that they had no choice.

Kids are constantly having to peer round corners on their way to school in autumn; whether they find this scary or just plain fun is unclear. Historically, Hall Beach had survived independently, by hunting the plentiful walrus herds, but these days, their revenue from tourism has shot upwards, thanks to those walruses, the polar bears, and the wreckage of an old WW2 bomber on the outskirts.

As for the fermented walrus meat, traditional Inuit medicine states that so-called “igunaq” can cleanse the digestive system. Consequently, hunters often ferment the raw meat underground during the autumn, attracting the polar bears, which only get hungrier and hungrier when the meat ends up being invisible. Hall Beach’s huge amount of polar bears is directly correlated with its huge amount of walruses.

Few places make more headlines for polar bear invasions than this snowy, reindeer-farming village in Russia’s far east. Ryrkaypiy is another walrus hideout, literally translating to “walrus jam”, and the polar bears have taken notice.

In 2013, two whales were washed ashore in a storm and stranded, causing 43 polar bears to arrive. Policemen put up posters in Ryrkaypiy warning people to stay indoors at night. They were even ordered to stay in groups and not to drop food litter on the streets to prevent the polar bears from detecting the scent. Like in Belushya Guba, shooting the polar bears was strictly forbidden.

In 2017, a nearby herd of walruses suffered a mysterious die off when they fell off a 38 meter cliff, and the scent of their corpses attracted 20 polar bears. The bears had their stomachs filled with blubber for days, but it didn’t dent their curiosity. The polar bears walked though the streets and one bear even tried to squeeze thorough a gap in a window.

Locals set up patrols, but 2018 saw the tradition continue. 25 bears strolled into town, and this time a lack of sea ice was to blame, trapping the bears on the coastline. Ryrkaypiy locals deployed signal rockets and rubber bullets, but the unperturbed polar bears rummaged through bins, scared old ladies and generally caused havoc.

Finally, the bears were outsmarted when locals scooped up the remains of nearby dead seals and dumped them further along the coastline. The reason why Ryrkaypiy is such a polar bear hub is its position on the annual migration route, but some would call it a cursed town.

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Buried in the annals of time, this polar bear attack happened when they were still called the “ice bear” and not confirmed to be an actual species.

William Barentz was leading an expedition to find the northeast passage in 1596, when his ship became blocked by ice briefly. Anchoring it to ground ice, he allowed his men to step ashore for a while, two at a time.

While two men talked and stretched their legs, little did they know that a polar bear was sliding up behind them, assuming they were seals. It was on its stomach and silent, using its centuries old method of hunting.

Suddenly, one man felt arms clasp round his stomach. He thought it was a practical joke, but in shock, his friend yelled out “a bear!”. Within seconds, the polar bear bit the man’s head to pieces and began to devour him, while the second man fled to the ship.

Quickly, a squad of 20 crew members arrived armed with musket and pikes. Yet the powerful polar bear killed another crew member with a quick swipe, suffering no damage.

Several men fled to the ship. The others half a conference; two men were already dead, so what was the point of carrying on? Yet three of the bravest men turned around for a final confrontation with the polar bear. Crew member William Geysen immediately shot the bear in the head, but somehow, it still didn’t die, merely stumbling forward.

The finishing blow came when Geysen thumped the polar bear in the head with the butt of his gun. It fell to the ground, making a loud crashing noise, and Geyson seized the opportunity by leaping onto the bear’s back and slitting its throat.

The men gathered the remains of the two dead men, and buried them under rocks, since the arctic ice was far too solid to dig a grave in. They skinned the bear to create a 13 feet long pelt, and later cooked its meat.

From that day forth, arctic expeditions knew never to underestimate a starving polar bear.

An ancient story which proves that a polar bear can leap 24 feet if it feels like it. One day in 1668, Captain Kees de Jong and his whaling crew were paddling around Arctic waters hunting, when they decided that it was bedtime after a hard day’s work.

Suddenly, a polar bear emerged out of the shadows onto the sea ice. It jumped into the water, and the whalers knew what they had to do. Quickly paddling up to the bear with another boat, de Jong immediately threw a lance into the bear’s stomach, seriously wounding it.

What came next was a classic case of overconfidence. Convinced that it would die within minutes, de Jong casually followed the polar bear around so that he could skin its pelt. He refrained from making another attack, not wanting to redden the beautiful white fur.

The bear then climbed onto a piece of ice and lay down with its head in its paws like a resting cat. De Jong decided it was time to finish the bear off, until all of a sudden, the polar beat leapt 24 feet into the air and landed right on the captain.

De Jong fell over, lost his lance, and prepared for a mauling. But suddenly, another boat and a man with a boat hook approached, and the bear ran away. Coming near to the boat, one whaler prepared to lance it, but de Jong shouted not to, as he feared that the polar bear would jump aboard and maul everyone.

Instead, he threw a lump of wood, which the bear chased down like dog. 8 men pursued the bear, and de Long threw another lance, which missed. The polar bear suddenly seemed to become intelligent and guarded the lance, bearing its teeth at them. Then the bear fled again. The pursuit was on, but soon after, the bear finally succumbed to its wounds and died.

For years afterwards, de Jong was known as “the man under the bear”, and he would retell the story endlessly. The pelt of the polar bear was passed down through his family for generations.

Lord Nelson is one of Britain’s greatest military heroes, thanks to his tactical genius in the battle of Trafalgar against Napoleon in 1805. But back when he was just 14, he had a polar bear encounter that many believe to be myth.

In 1773, he was a midshipman aboard the bomb vessel, Carcass, which teamed up with Racehorse and set sail for the northeast passage under the command of Commodore Phipps. Within weeks, Nelson had saved the Racehorse’s crew from a herd of enraged walruses.

One day, Nelson and a friend ventured out onto the ice near Spitsbergen, claiming that they were looking for polar bears. By nightfall, the captain was increasingly worried, as Nelson hadn’t returned. Suddenly the mist cleared, and Nelson was standing on the ice, pointing his musket at an angry polar bear.

He fired the gun, but it wouldn’t work, and as the polar bear charged, he flipped the musket around to whack the bear with its butt instead. Nelson was about to be mauled, but he fought back valiantly. Suddenly, the ship’s guns fired a booming blast, scaring the bear and causing it to flee. Nelson was dressed down by the captain, but replied “I was in hopes, sir, of getting a skin for my father”.

Today, this story is still mysterious. Stories differ over whether Nelson actually whacked the bear’s face with the musket, or was just about to. Some historians believe that this happened to a different crew member, while others believe that it never happened at all.

Apparently, Nelson never wrote about the polar bear himself, only a witness. Another version claims that Nelson was saved when the sea ice split apart and he and the polar bear were separated.

This encounter is truly lost in the dusty old books of history. Little is known about Captain Cook, captain of the arctic explorer Archangel.

All that’s known is that Cook landed on the coast of Spitzenberg with his surgeon and mate in 1778. While wandering the beaches, a polar bear suddenly appeared from behind an ice hump where it had been hiding. It took everyone by surprise, materialising out of thin air. The polar bear galloped forward, opened its mouth, and seized Captain Cook between its jaws.

The captain had seconds to act or have his bones broken. Somehow, while in a polar bear’s mouth, Cook stayed completely calm, and shouted at his surgeon two words which would save his life: “shoot it!”.

Another thing which saved his life was the surgeon’s aim, the shot of a lifetime. He fired his rifle at the polar bears head, destroying its brain and killing it instantly with one bullet. He was standing 40 yards away. Captain Cook fell down, brushed himself off, and the three went on their way.

Nothing else is known about this story. Textbooks which reference the encounter date back to 1788, which is easily close enough that the story is probably true. Numerous more textbooks from 1820, 1831 and later reference the tale as well.

In 1869, the German empire was finally beginning to unify, and was desperate to prove that they were a proper empire. This of course meant ships trapped in ice floes, crew members stranded on islands, and death-defying polar bear fights.

In 1869, the ships Hansa and Germania set sail for the Arctic, but within months, Hansa had sunk. By March, the crew was preparing for a sleigh ride northwards, while scientists milled around the camp collecting data as planned.

On March  6th 1870, while sitting inside a cabin, three men heard a ear piercing shriek. They poked their head out, and heard a cry of “a bear is carrying me off!”. At 8:45PM, Dr Borgen had ventured out to collect meteorological data. He had a talk with Captain Koldewey, before walking to the shore.

While returning to the ship, and just 50 yards away, Borgen heard a rustling noise to the left. According to his diary, a polar bear appeared and grabbed him so quickly that he had no time to dodge or use his gun. He instantly felt his scalp ripping open; the bear had bitten his skull like it would bite a seal.

Captain Koldewey rushed out the hut, and saw a bear dragging Borgen across the ice. Raising his rifle, he fired a shot, but the polar bear only dropped Borgen’s head and picked up his arm.

“300 paces” later, the bear finally dropped Borgen. He woke up to see Captain Koldewey staring down at him saying “thank god, he’s alive”. Meanwhile, the bear stood waiting uncertainly, before the rifle fired a fresh bullet and it dashed off into the night.

Later, Borgen claimed to have felt zero pain or fear. He did, however, have 6 inch strips of scalp hanging over his face, serious skull lacerations, and 20 wounds from being dragged over the ice. The polar bear was never seen again.

On March 14th 1895, a pair of Norwegians decided to set sail for the Arctic in a pair of wooden canoes strapped together. One of them, Hjalimar Johansen, was a stoker with no arctic experience whatsoever. The other was Fridtjof Nansen, a famed explorer who was the first to cross the interior of Greenland on skis.

Nansen and Johansen brought 3 teams of dogs and 700KG of equipment. Their mission: do the impossible and reach the North Pole. Unfortunately, the sea ice was so twisted and deformed that they were constantly devising new routes, figuring out how to move forward.

By April 8th, they decided to settle for the furthest north land record, and travel southwards again. Summer set in, and on August 8th, Nansen was loading their kayaks to travel a freshly opened gap between the sea ice when he heard a scream of “get the gun!”.

Johansen was lying on his back, with a polar bear towering above him. The bear had sneaked up from behind and knocked him down with one swipe of its paw.

There was a problem though – the kayaks had to be saved. Nansen tried to anchor them to the ice, but heard Johansen say “look sharp, if you want to be in time”. Johansen literally had his hand on the bear’s throat, holding its snapping jaws back with all the strength he could muster.

Suddenly, the dogs came to rescue, distracting the bear and allowing Johansen to crawl away. The bear swiped at the dogs, sending them rolling across the sea ice with a howl and a whimper. Nansen grabbed his gun, aimed, and killed the polar bear with one shot.

The only injury Johansen suffered was a slightly wounded hand. Nansen also joked that the polar bear had tidied Johansen up by scraping some grime off his cheek. In his diary that evening, Johansen wrote “Everything thus turned out well, even though it could have ended so sadly“.

Roald Amundsen was one of the greatest polar explorers ever, the first man to reach the south pole, beating Robert Falcon Scott by 34 days. Yet even he wasn’t immune to a polar bear attack.

In 1918, Amundsen departed Norway aboard his ship the Maud in order to sail through the northeast passage. In the winter, his ship was frozen into the shoreline of the north coast of Asia, and here, events took a turn for the worst.

First, Amundsen tripped over the dogs while descending the gangway of the ship and broke his shoulder. Then one day, while Amundsen stood on the shore, his dog dashed towards him barking and howling.

Suddenly, out of the gloom, Amundsen heard a heavy panting, and the shape of a polar bear emerged, along with a very cute cub. The bear was chasing the dog, but stopped, and stared at Amundsen. Amundsen stared back.

Quickly, Amundsen turned 180 degrees and ran for the ship, but the bear followed. As he ran, the panting sounds behind him were getting heavier and heavier.

Just as he reached the gangway, a heavy paw whacked his injured shoulder, knocking him down to the snow. After reaching the south pole, this was surely the end for Amundsen, but Jacob the Dog rode to the rescue, barking and distracting the polar bear. Both animals ran off into the distance, while Amundsen staggered aboard the ship, injured but not fatally injured.

The next day, Jacob the Dog returned to the ship, without the polar bear.  Did Jacob win the fight? Or did the bear and dog strike a deal? Nobody knows, but Amundsen later described the encounter as “a race between a healthy, furious bear and an invalid”.

According to Amundsen, his life didn’t flash before him. Instead, when the bear prepared for its final swipe, “a scene passed before my eyes which, though vivid enough, was certainly frivolous. I lay there wondering how many hairpins were swept up on the sidewalk of Regent Street in London on a Monday morning“. He then declared that he needed to see a psychologist.

A fatal polar bear attack, but the woman did save lives and receive a posthumous medal for bravery. While camping near Hudson Bay, 66 year old Moses Aliyak and his 12 year old grandson Cyrus Aliyak attempted to retrieve their  boat, which had drifted away earlier in the day.

However, they instead found an angry, 2 metre tall polar bear standing by the shore. Moses distracted the bear by throwing rocks, allowing Cyrus to dash back to the tent, while Moses was quickly attacked and suffered lacerations to his face.

Meanwhile, Margaret Amarook was at a nearby spring, replenishing their water bottles. She wondered why nobody was coming to help her, and returned to the camp to find Cyrus hiding.

Suddenly, the bear returned, and Hattie Amitnak, 60, and 10 year old Eddie ran out of the tent. The polar bear swiped Eddie across the face, sending him rolling, and then Hattie became a hero: she ran away to district the bear.

Sadly, she was then mauled to death. Standing a few metres away, Amarook said that the bear turned and looked at her. Then she discovered Moses, who was unrecognisable, with blood dripping down his face. He told Margaret to leave him and find help, while he hid in the tent.

After sending a prayer, Margaret headed for the campsite of David and Rosie Oolooyuk, who had a radio, only to turn around and see that Moses was fleeing after all.

Later, wildlife officers tracked down the bear. It was within 3KM of the campsite and estimated to be 1.5 years old. Nobody else suffered lasting injuries, and Hattie Amitnak received a posthumous Medal Of Bravery in 2001 for successfully distracting the bear and saving the children.

If you wander into the polar bear’s domain with a 8cm pocket knife, there’s a good chance that you’ll be eaten (or kept as a pet), but also a slight chance that you’ll survive. This theory was successfully proved by Eric Fortier in July 2001.

On Baffin Island in northern Canada, Fortier and his companions Patricia Doyon and Alain Parenteau went to sleep in their tent one night. Suddenly, at 3am, Fortier was jumped awake. He felt what he thought was a dog leaning against his tent, and calmly decided to push it away.

But seconds later, his girlfriend saw a huge, paw-shaped shadow floating sideways. The mysterious paw started to rip the ceiling apart, causing Fortier to yell a warning to Parenteau in a nearby tent.

But it was no use: the bear was alerted to Parenteau’s presence and began mauling him. Apparently, the type of screams suddenly changed. Fortier jumped to his feet, and grabbed the only weapon he had available: an 8cm long pocket knife.

The 6 foot tall Parenteau tried to stand up, but the polar bear knocked him to the ground again. Fortier threw a rock, which distracted the bear, but it then attacked Patricia Doyon.

What happened next was a blur, but apparently, Doyon tripped over and was lying down. The polar bear bent over to sink its teeth in, but just in time, Fortier dashed over and knifed the bear below its jaw two times. After howling, the polar bear stumbled off into the night.

Fortier looked down to find his knife covered in blood and fur, and realised the problem: they were totally isolated. Fortier and Doyon, decided to strap two wooden canoes together, and set sail for the nearest civilisation in hope of getting medical assistance.

In 2003, Fortier was granted a bronze Carnegie Medal for supreme bravery. Paranteau and Doyon made a full recovery, but Paranteau had a gash within a centimetre of his jugular vein.

Meanwhile, a wildlife squad searched Baffin Island, but the polar bear was never located. You never know, it could even still be alive today…

On July 22nd 2013, explorer Robert Dyer went to bed dreaming of bears. While camping in Canada’s Newfoundland region on an expedition, he had seen a mother and her cub strolling slowly down a beach. Later that day, another polar bear inspected the camp and lolled its tongue, like it had picked up the scene.

Likewise, gunman Rich Gross ran through attack scenarios in his head, like he religiously did every night in his 15 year guiding career. He considered questions like where to keep the flare gun, where could a helicopter land, etc.

At 2:30am, Dyer jumped awake. Outside his tent was what he feared most: a silhouette of a polar bear. He managed to yell “bear in the camp” before a paw ripped into the tent, seizing him and crushing his hand. Dyer’s body became wrapped up in the nylon tent, and as the polar tried to rip him free, the two suddenly flew backwards.

Dyer’s lung collapsed, and seconds later he was tumbling across the hard, icy ground, being dragged towards the beach, and probably his death. Meanwhile, Rich Gross awoke to terrified screaming, echoing all over the camp.

Sprinting through his tent door, he saw an unmistakable shadow dragging Dyer 75 feet away. The tent and electric fence lay in tatters. Gross did what he had to do: he fired the flare gun just above the polar bear’s head. The beast dropped Dyer and dashed off, but Gross assumed that Dyer was already dead.

Fortunately, he was wrong – Dyer was breathing. He was lying unconscious on the sand and tundra grass.

Gross stayed alert; he knew that the bear would be back. When the fluffy white head first reappeared, Gross didn’t hesitate before firing another fiery flare. Finally, the polar bear disappeared once and for all.

Meanwhile, Dyer’s eyes fluttered open. He was instantly hit with an overwhelmingly fishy smelling saliva. Doctors tended to his wounds before declaring him stable after 1 hour, while another person phoned a helicopter.

In the end, Dyer’s voice was altered, and he had many scars, but he almost completely recovered and was itching to embark on another expedition the very moment he woke up in hospital the next day. The polar bear’s fate is unknown.

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