Payer Island, Franz Josef Land
This was our second day in Franz Josef Land, and so full we could barely believe our good fortune. The remoteness of these islands has left them almost entirely untouched by human activity – coming here is like visiting some white Eden. We began the day with 5 polar bears before breakfast, including a female teaching her two young cubs how to hunt. Though the cubs were small, probably born only in January, when their mother told them to sit – they sat!
The female then proceeded to stand motionless at a seal’s air hole in the ice waiting for the seal to appear. If the female even shifts a foot, the seal will hear it and use another air hole and it is essential that the cubs remain completely motionless as well.
Later in the morning we made Zodiac cruises through the ice and encountered a large number of walrus swimming among the floes. At this time of year we see mostly females and their calves. Again we observed the maternal care of these animals as they cradled their calves between their front flippers as they sat on the ice, always keeping the calves protected in the middle of a group. When they entered the water they carefully moved their calves ahead, always keeping them cradled and protected.
One single female was particularly interested in our Zodiac and with our “splash cam” which we had brought from Endeavour, we were able to get some wonderful video of this individual underwater. She was very curious about the camera and felt it with her very sensitive whiskers, or vibrissae. This is how walrus sense their environment much of the time as they search for clams in the bottom sediments. That evening at recap, Pinniped Naturalist Tom Smith explained how, with their powerful jaw and cheek muscles they are able to first shoot a jet of water to blow the clams out of the sediment and then suck the soft parts right out of the shell. At one point she put her mouth right on the camera lens and we had the view which is the last one a clam sees when being consumed – we thought we might lose the camera, but she was just curious!
In the evening we were treated to a delicious barbecue dinner on the foredeck, complete with Russian specialties like caviar on our baked potatoes – dining at 36˚F, complete with a bit of Russian dancing! It was a long and full day and we went to our bunks wonderfully tired and satisfied.
This was our second day in Franz Josef Land, and so full we could barely believe our good fortune. The remoteness of these islands has left them almost entirely untouched by human activity – coming here is like visiting some white Eden. We began the day with 5 polar bears before breakfast, including a female teaching her two young cubs how to hunt. Though the cubs were small, probably born only in January, when their mother told them to sit – they sat!
The female then proceeded to stand motionless at a seal’s air hole in the ice waiting for the seal to appear. If the female even shifts a foot, the seal will hear it and use another air hole and it is essential that the cubs remain completely motionless as well.
Later in the morning we made Zodiac cruises through the ice and encountered a large number of walrus swimming among the floes. At this time of year we see mostly females and their calves. Again we observed the maternal care of these animals as they cradled their calves between their front flippers as they sat on the ice, always keeping the calves protected in the middle of a group. When they entered the water they carefully moved their calves ahead, always keeping them cradled and protected.
One single female was particularly interested in our Zodiac and with our “splash cam” which we had brought from Endeavour, we were able to get some wonderful video of this individual underwater. She was very curious about the camera and felt it with her very sensitive whiskers, or vibrissae. This is how walrus sense their environment much of the time as they search for clams in the bottom sediments. That evening at recap, Pinniped Naturalist Tom Smith explained how, with their powerful jaw and cheek muscles they are able to first shoot a jet of water to blow the clams out of the sediment and then suck the soft parts right out of the shell. At one point she put her mouth right on the camera lens and we had the view which is the last one a clam sees when being consumed – we thought we might lose the camera, but she was just curious!
In the evening we were treated to a delicious barbecue dinner on the foredeck, complete with Russian specialties like caviar on our baked potatoes – dining at 36˚F, complete with a bit of Russian dancing! It was a long and full day and we went to our bunks wonderfully tired and satisfied.
