123: A Strand in the Web. Torngat Mountains National Park.

the Earth does not belong to man man belongs to the Earth this we know all things are connected like the blood which unites one family whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of Earth man did not weave the web of life he is merely a strand in it whatever he does to the web he does to himself all things are bound together those words spoken centuries ago by Chief Seattle merely echoed what his people knew for a time a memorable we are not separate from the environment we are of it our actions or inactions have long- lasting Ripple effects on everything around us and while we may think these ripples are sent out far far away somewhere else dissipating as they travel sometimes they Boomerang right back at us as waves and hit us right where it hurts s welcome to National Park after [Music] dark hello hello welcome back to National Park after dark I'm really excited I know what this episodes about already so I'm really excited about it but I think when everyone else figures out exactly what this is about they're also going to be very excited I know I was really really pumped to do this one and um I couldn't shut up about it so I already kind of told Cassie but welcome back everybody um before we get started we have I think just one thing to talk about and that is we are doing a Spotify live event again this is going to be our second one it's going to be January 26th at 400 p.m. Pacific Time 700 p.m. Eastern yeah and not only are we doing the Spotify life but it is the anniversary of us doing two years of this podcast to the almost to the day I think we released it the 27th like the 1 no was the 25th the first one oh you know what the 27th is what my adopt adversary for chosa a that's why I always think of January 27th it's a big week it's a big week it's a big week there's a lot going on yeah well we're it's our two year and we're going to be doing a live show and we're going to be doing a fun Q&A just to talk about the podcast how it started so many people have reached out to us and ask questions like how did you guys think of this how do you find the research what's it like to create a podcast things like that so we'd love to answer all your questions in this Spotify live yeah it'll be a mixture of you know behind the scenes of the show just fun questions just basically shooting the and celebrating two years of um National Park after dark so if if you're interested in that it is only on Spotify you can listen through the Spotify app as normal but if you want a chance to interact with us and we can bring you like kind of up on stage if you will and it's kind of like a live call type of situation to do that um you have to download the Spotify Live app but otherwise if you just want to listen you can just listen as normal through Spotify yeah and with the Spotify Live app you can you can message us too so if you have questions you don't want to actually talk on the podcast but you have questions you can write into a chat and you get to talk to all the other people who are listening as well so there's a fun little chat going on we'll be talking we'll be engaging in it in real time and uh yeah it'll be really fun the first one was awesome this one's going to be really fun we're stoked for it yeah so hopefully we see you all there but for this episode we are going to torat Mountains National Park do you have any idea where that where is that okay well it is located on the labrador peninsula in the Providence of New Finland and Labrador in Canada very cool you might want to look up the location just to kind of get your bearings a little bit because I know when I read that I was like I have no idea what that means I know where Canada is but I actually know where you're talking about okay there's some other national parks are around there and my family just went up there and they were sending me pictures all around the national parks in that area and they're like you have to come you have to come and they got me I don't have it near me right now but they actually got me a hat from one of the national parks there too so I I do know where you're talking about where where exactly were they like in New Finland yeah they were in New Finland they were in uh gross Mo National Park is where they are oh I have no idea what that is it's in New Foundland and uh a labrador I think as well okay so write up where we're going to be today the last time I was in can actually that's a lie the last time I was in Canada I went to Montreal but the first time I ever went to Canada I went to Nova Scotia and I was a kid and it was one of those like ill- fated family vacations where I was stuck in the back of the van with like four gener three generations of family and it was just it was rainy and foggy the whole time and I was like a pissed off like 13-year-old or however so I wish I was in a better frame of mind but hopefully I can transport everyone to a nice visit in Canada this time around Oh Canada sorry so thank you so this National Park is actually the largest in all of Atlantic Canada it encompasses 9700 square kmers or 2.4 million acres and to give you an idea at least people in the states a good idea of how big that is it's an area larger than Yellowstone National Park so it's pretty big the park is not only large it's extremely remote with borders running along the labrador sea which separates Northern Canada from Southern Greenland it also contains the highest mountains in Mainland Canada east of the Rockies the park was first created in 2005 and later established in 2008 to honor the relationship that the innuit peoples of the area have with the land that for centuries has been sacred and known as our beautiful land and the place of spirits Parks Canada actually co-runs the park along with the nanavat government with a goal to honor innuit rights interests and the relationship that the Inuit have with the landscape which includes hunting and fish fishing rights within the park borders very cool there are four different climactic regions that are found within this National Park the Mountain alpine Coastal fjords and Headlands Southern interior valleys and Arctic are all filled with super tall mountains SE ice stories high Rocky beaches glacial lakes low Shrubbery and waterfalls the Park is open year round and is accessible by chartered plane cruise ship or snowmobile due to its remote location torat Mountains National Park welcomes less than 600 people a year wow well I'm convinced I'm ready to go an area bigger than Yellowstone no one visits and no one goes there well there's no roads so it sounds like mhm there's no roads well I'm down let's do it well the journey takes a lot of careful planning obviously cuz you can't just drive there there are no roads no official campgrounds and no signs but those who do make it here are in for some of the most bre breathtaking views and experiences in the world activities such as mountain climbing stargazing helicopter rides boat tours cultural experiences Northern Lights watching hiking and kaying are amongst the most popular Wildlife watching is also a huge draw here because there's species like Caribou wolves Fox paragen Falcons black bears and polar bears that all roam the subarctic Park Backcountry camping is also permitted but only advised for the seasoned and experienced out dorsman a simple Google image search of this National Park will give anyone the travel bug so uh Cassie I see you reaching for your phone I'm Googling it right now how do I spell it okay t o r n g a t Mountains National Park oh yeah I am totally down it's beautiful yeah this is so pretty it's going to give you that travel bug itch to get you to the northern reaches of Canada oh one of the first photos that comes up is a little bear rolling around on the ground I know look at his foot so cute just like straight up in the air you think cat paws are cute look at this thing yeah get a Lo of that with all this beauty it's no wonder why in July of 2013 Matthew Dyer packed his bags to go explore this part but it would be a vacation that would change him forever so Matthew Dyer is a classic Manor and if you're from New England you understand exactly what I mean he's Hardy and Rough Around the Edges but super soft inside his father was a lobsterman and Matt's earliest memories involved watching his dad row his boat ashore through thick salty fog in 2013 Matt was in his late 40s and he had made a home for himself his wife and his dogs in Turner Maine working as a lawyer at Pine Tree Legal Assistance where it was his job and passion to help those with financial and or mental health issues he enjoyed gardening Brewing Mead and hiking the trails of New England his grown out wispy gray hair often held back from his face with a classic red bandana he had tattoos of birds Turtles and Bulls adorning his calves and yd drazzle which is an important feature in Norse mythology which is the Tree of Life sprawled across his back so what I'm trying to say is Matt wasn't just a lawyer he was a cool lawyer you know you know what I mean yeah it's a cool lawyer he's got a life Tree on his back right and he had never physically been to the torn Gat mountains but he had read extensively about them and felt a deep connection to them in Icelandic Norse mythology the area was called Markland the new world which was a sacred land where polar bears were revered as gods and while he lived in Maine his ancestry traced back to New Finland and Nova Scotia that's likely when he saw an ad in the fall 2012 issue of Sierra magazine advertising a two-week adventure of a lifetime in the lower reaches of Canada's arctic tundra he absolutely jumped on it the ad warned participants must be fit and experienced hikers would have to accept an element of risk and highlighted the lack of access to Emergency Medical Care due to the remote location of the park but despite the warnings Matt read on if you dream of experiencing a place that is both pristine and magical a land of spirits and polar bears rarely seen by humans this is the trip you have been waiting for that's what the ad read and that was what he was waiting for he was waiting for the trip of a lifetime I'm sold I would read that and be like yeah that's for me for sure let's go Hook Line and Sinker yeah they got you he eagerly applied for a spot hoping whoever was in charge would accept him and one of those people in charge was 61-year-old rich gross although he worked for a nonprofit in San Francisco he had been working as a Sierra Club guide several weeks each year since the 1990s he loved the Arctic and the feeling of being small in a vast Wilderness and that was just one of the reasons why he loved organizing trips to venture to remote corners of the world where not many people get the chance to visit torat Mountains National Park was chosen for this exact reason that and Rich wanted to see polar bears the park was actually named after Tor Garo an ancient inuent Spirit who appeared as a polar bear and controlled the lives of sea animals Rich's co-lead was 60-year-old Marta Chase who worked as a medical Diagnostics consultant but like Rich was a seasoned and experienced Outdoorsman with certified Wilderness first responder credentials she had been guiding hiking trips since high school and this particular trip would be the 14th one that she led with Rich for the Sierra Club but she was a little bit hesitant about this one and she actually almost cancelled She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and pending uh mastectomy kind of caused some pause for her about going on this trip but after she talked with her doctors and she got their approval she decided to go forward with it and she's going before she has the surgery yes yep I mean kind of a fun way to like I'm about to have this major surgery might might as well and go under major treatments I'm sure might as well have a little bit of fun before that starts exactly and each year she and Rich would take turns with who led the research and Outreach for the trips they kind of like just flip-flopped they had kind of worked out this sort of division of labor when it came to handling all the trip Logistics and this year was her turn to do that they received tons of applications for this particular trip but settled on the following group 65-year-old Larry Rodman a Manhattan lawyer 66-year-old Marilyn Frankle an exercise physiologist from Oregon and 56-year-old Rick Eisenberg from Scottsdale Arizona who worked as a clinical researcher and was a retired physician every one of those applicants were experienced Outdoorsman who had been on other Sierra Club trips before several of which were actually led by Rich and Marta so they're kind of like veterans they've been on several before mhm 64-year-old KOB costanita Mendes which was Marta's husband also joined the group Matt was kind of the odd one out in that sense he was no stranger to the outdoors at all like by any stretch of the imagination he spent ample time outdoors in New England and he even treed with the Appalachian Mountain Club but Rick had reservations about his application because he noted a glaring lack of backpacking experience and he emphasized that the trip was going to be particularly rough and remote but despite this Matt pushed he wrote back insistent that he was up for the challenge and he was you know he was like I can do it I'm no stranger to the outdoors he was sending in all these photos of him at top different Mountain Summits in Maine and New Hampshire he was really selling himself and it it worked rich and Marta approved his application with the condition that he would follow a strict training regimen they weren't just like okay we believe you they're like all right you do have experience but you're going to have to train for this trip if we're going to allow you on Fair I mean it sounds like he has a lot of day hiking experience yes exactly and he was absolutely elated when he got accepted and his wife watched her husband regularly strap on snowshoes and load his pack with 50 lbs of gear and set off off and Trek Into the Woods for 10mi training hikes and he did this for months it had been decades since he had trained like that and just as long since his last pretty big adventure which was when he traveled Europe via train during a break from his time at the University of Maine so after months and months of prep work Matt was ready for the trip of a lifetime Rich Marta and KOB flew in a day early on July 18th 2013 to take care of last minute trip preparations while the remaining group members arrived the following day Marta had spent the previous several months in communication both via email and direct phone conversation with both parks Canada and local Alan Legas who had been operating guided tours Expeditions and safaris in the area for decades together they created the trip that the group would follow and this was the plan the group would fly from Montreal to kuac the largest Inuit community in Nunavik the innuit region of Quebec next they'd take a charter plane to leg's camp and spend the night then they would take a float plane that would bring them into torat Mountains National Park where they would be on their own for the next 11 days although experienced and prepared Marta knew the limitations of her own knowledge and expressed it in writing through Communications to both the local Outfitter and Parks Canada in one of her emails she wrote quote the thought of polar bears is still a concern to me I have experience with black and brown bears but not with polar her extensive research regarding polar bear safety within the park fueled their gear preparation and they loaded up with all of the recommended items and that included bear spray be bangers which are loud explosives that's kind of launched from like a handheld cylinder I don't know if we talked about that before or not so just wanted to clarify that and flare guns plus something additional that was not on the re amended list but they had heard of before and wanted to bring with them and that was two sets of electric fences to put around the perimeter of their camp Oh smart guns are like firearm guns are not generally allowed in Canada's national parks but in 2011 Parks Canada tweaked the rules a bit for parks that contained polar bears allowing researchers guides licensed by Parks Canada and local native Canadians to apply for gun permits for those parks that have a polar bear population guns could also be carried by Inuit bear guards who have taken polar bear safety courses and that have gone through licensing with Parks Canada and the reason for this change is that Parks Canada cited an increased risk of dangerous human bear encounters due to the impact of climate change on sea ice so this has all kind of happened within the last 10 to 12 years this change so it's important to note that this change did go into effect by the time their trip came around but they were not permitted or licensed to carry firearms and they were not traveling with anyone who had that license either I imagine that this might be why she's so nervous going into the park because I'm assuming that she heard that there's been an increased risk with polar bear attacks well that and she has just no experience with this type of bear either you know it's like yes she's had decades and decades worth of backcountry backpacking experience and she's encountered a lot of different Wildlife but going into such a remote area with little to no experience with one of if not the top predator in the area it can make anyone a little uncomfortable and she's responsible for an entire group of people so yeah it just it's reminding me of my adaah Blackjack episode where she went to Wrangle Island which was a polar bear mating ground and she was just terrified she's like I don't know what to do I'm so scared of pull her bears like I know I'm going to die and she didn't which was great the parks Canada website also strongly encourages visitors to the torn gats to hire bear guards but they are not required so when Marta asked Legas whether they' need a bear guard she said he told her that no one who traveled through his Camp utilized them and none of the parks Canada employees she was in communication with in those months leading up to the trip mentioned bear guards either so she's kind of just going off with the recommendations that you know the locals and everyone who actually lives there was telling her the park required anyone entering the park to watch a mandatory DVD on polar bear safety which the group did before their trip after months of prep work ironing out all the logistics mentally and physically preparing it was time to go and it's also important to note that the group communicated their plans once in the National Park to Parks Canada as well I think this is a lot different from maybe definitely mine but probably a lot of people listening their experiences with national parks like I have never once communicated my travel plans with National Park employees unless I was signing a Backcountry log like at a trail head yeah I I mean I've definitely stopped at the visitor center and been like where should I go what trails should I do what's open and then been like oh I'm going to go to that that's a good idea thank you yeah like we did that when we were in Rocky Mountain the last time we were there together but this is like they are literally telling them playby playay where they're going what day like they're going to be at what location like it was very detailed makesense they're so far in the back country with no one around it's not like they can just hop on a road and like drive to a hospital if anything were to happen it would be a full Rescue Mission exactly so their plan which they communicated to the park would be that once they're actually in the park I know there was a lot of other things leading up to this but this is when they're on their own in the park Park they would begin at navac forj and move Inland packing up camp most mornings and working their way toward an end at the komok torvic Fjord where they'd be met by a plane from leg's Camp so they had an entry point they were making their way over and they'd have an extraction plan they estimated their days to be about 6 hours of trekking and Hiking each day lugging their 50 lb packs breaking down and setting up camp each and every day halfway through the trip a plane was scheduled to drop off the rest of their food supply so they didn't have to Lug 11 days worth of food for six people or seven people so it would be a really difficult trip but totally worth it so there's all of this prep work so much Logistics going into this finally they're ready to get started feeling good about the preparation level and anxious to get that twoe trip going on July 19th 2013 the group hopped aboard a small float plane with seating for less than 20 people and took off toward the Bary River Camp about 900 M north of Montreal where they spent the night they use this time as kind of a practice before their time in the park cuz this is when they're with a local Outfitter still this is his Camp so they're kind of using this time to set up camp get kind of in the groove of things if if there's anything that's not working or needs tweaking they have a local there to help them so they set up camp even their electric fencing all of that and they were testing their deterrence making sure their flares didn't Jam they had appropriate number of shells Etc everything goes smoothly and then on July 21st just as planned a float plane brought the group towards the notch vac Fjord they were dropped off and as the pilot said goodbye the group immediately set to work choosing a campsite so now they're in the National Park it's kind of like I Envision alone the show alone it's like when the plane or The Boat Leaves and they're like I'm like really by myself in the middle of nowhere it's like that's it I'm officially here I really chose to do this exactly yeah it it's when gets real you know so they're dropped off the pilot leaves and they immediately start scouting out a place to set up their campsite and they were drawn to a flat area about 150 yard off the shoreline with easy access to drinking water the group had been instructed in their intro to the park along with that polar bear safety video to avoid void camping directly next to the shore and they felt as though this was a good enough spot because it was near the labrador sea Coastline but it wasn't right alongside it plus although it was not a designated campsite remember there is no such thing in this park it appeared as if there had been activity at this spot before for campers there was like a fire ring and some stacked rocks and it was kind of a cleared area it looked like there had been tents there before okay that makes sense they got to work setting up their campsite and a separate cook and food storage area as well about 200 yard away so there's kind of two encampment areas and they set up the electric fences around the perimeters of each one and that was kind of their first priority to get that set up they're like keep these polar bears out please yes so each just to kind of give everyone a visual of what this looked like each fence was about 3 ft high and it had three parallel wires attached to fourt poles and the voltage was around 5 to 7 kilovolts which would not be enough to like knock a bear out or physically harm it but it would be enough to act as a deterrent hopefully I'm sorry 3 feet tall yes for a polar bear yes they can just step right over that I know or are they trying to keep out like a puppy what even I don't know that's that's what that's what it was is and I think that's actually pretty I think that's pretty standard that size because if you think about it like unless this polar bear is like secret agent polar bear it's not going to be like stop directly in front of it lift all four of its limbs carefully over this three-foot fence like it's just going to plow through there and right yeah I mean I don't know I don't know what polar bears if there's food that they smell they might just like one PT at a time step over I'm just picturing I volunteer at a horse farm every week and horses are probably a similar size to pull her bears in like height and stuff and their fences are much higher than 3 ft tall yeah and polar bears are signicantly they're taller than me I'm 5'2 and these fences are taller than me so that yeah I'm not sure I'm just that's my first red flag that I feel like I'm seeing in this but okay 3 feet I could walk over 3 ft yeah I know well we'll get the electric fence will come back into play here okay I'm concerned I have concerns you should be concerned once all of the tents were set up they had their first wildlife sighting literally as soon as they got there like they hadn't even been there in half an hour and they had their first major Wildlife sighting and it was a wolf right along the Shor line and they were totally amazed they spent the rest of their day hanging out in the area and getting kind of a lay of the land everyone enjoyed the first uneventful night cooking hanging around the campfire talking laughing and listening to the wolf howls on the Wind all night finally turning in for the night around 10:30 early the next morning which was July 22nd kobb Rose first to go use the bathroom and he emerged from his tent stretched his legs it was about 4:30 in the morning so super early and he noticed something in the distance well there was two something and in a hushed but urgent tone he roused the rest of his friends urging them to get out of their tents he pointed down to the Shoreline and everyone watched in silence as a mother polar bear in her cub walked along the rocky Beach perpendicular to to their camp and everyone was beaming this is exactly what they were hoping for the opportunity to see wildlife in action and here it was it doesn't get realer than that they watched the pair for several minutes until they disappeared in the distance and they all were just laughing and smiling hugging each other what a beautiful start to the day magical after a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee everyone prepared their day packs for a hike across the Fjord it was a breathtaking hike with views for my Matt recalls seeing bear scat which he thought was more likely to be black bear cuz there was a bunch of berries in it but he wasn't sure Cariboo antlers and a skull of something that he guessed was either a seal or a wolf and he thought like his first thought of seeing all of this stuff was there is a lot of living and dying on Stark display here a place that made humans seem very insignificant at 3:30 in the afternoon they were nearing camp and came across a small Street with their tents in sight KOB decided to sit down and remove his shoes and walk Barefoot along the fresh cool stream not even halfway across he was hearing shouting coming from behind him from his group of friends Matt had spotted a polar bear and had alerted everyone get back here we have a bear his wife Marta was yelling to him who he quickly like skedaddled right back to the group real quick I bet and the white dot in the distance was coming directly their way as it approached it was clear that this animal was not the female bear that they had seen earlier in the day this was a male and his behavior was quite different the female in her cuup earlier that morning had without a doubt seen the group but appeared totally unfaced and totally uninterested in them and just kind of went on their way and didn't look at them twice but this encounter felt different this individual animal snout was high up in the air and its tongue was sticking out clearly assessing the group smelling tasting the air sizing them up essentially so the group bunched together and they were yelling and waving their poles in the air and generally making themselves look bigger and scarier but the bear gave no indication of fear or any type of concern and at this point it was roughly 50 yard in front of them and it wasn't stopping get back to your electric 3ot fence guys they're out ont they're not going to run that's the worst thing you can do yeah so it's not bolting at them but it's not slowing down it's coming right at them and Rich decided it was time to take action he kind of consulted with Marta really quickly and she kind of gave him the green light and he fired his flare gun directly at the feet of the approaching bear the close contact with the flash scared the bear off and everyone kind of like breathed the sigh of relief like okay thank God that worked because if not we don't have another weapon and they were feeling a little proud of and Victorious like they just had their first polar bear encounter but that Joy quickly reduced to worried murmurs as they all watched as the bear stopped its Retreat opting instead to leisurely walk to a nearby ledge about 300 yard away which overlooked their campsite and he just plopped right down he rested his head on his outstretched front paws and his eyes were on the group all night he's like I'm just going to sit back here and watch and see what I think of you guys yep so that was 3:30 in the afternoon roughly that that happened and this bear did not move all day into the night at least you have a three foot electric fence for this giant ass bear that's now stalking you mhm so before we go on let's just kind of get into polar bears just briefly obviously I would hope we all know what a polar bear is but they have some interesting behaviors and stats associated with them to get a greater appreciation for what is about to happen I think we should all get a little more acquainted with polar bears yes teach us about polar bears well now we have the trifecta so okay I know there are more species of bears than just black bear polar bear and grizzly but we now have the trifecta going on here got the main three up here polar bears are also known as sea Bears or Ice Bears and it is the largest land carnivore in the world a true apex predator they are the top of the food chain and have no natural predators males are typically larger than females and can actually be up to 2 to three times larger in weight males come in around 550 to 1700 lb and are 8 to 10 ft in length while females around 330 to 650 lb and 6 to8 ft in length three foot fence three foot fence and that three foot fence is looking smaller by the minute according to the Guinness Book of World Records the heaviest polar bear ever documented was shot in Alaska in 1960 and just get ready for this you actually might want to Google this because the image is insane okay it weighed 2,29 lb and stood 12 ft tall it was displayed at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair so if you type in Seattle World's Fair and polar bear you'll see it I found it wow that bear is a it's it's a giant like there's no other way to insane yeah spare is so big as their nickname alludes to polar bears live and Hunt primarily on the sea ice in Arctic environments following the pack ice they have double layered fur black skin and four Ines of blubber to keep them warm same yeah I want I want four lbs of blubber to keep me warm I wouldn't need a throw blanket everywhere I go their elongated body long neck and narrow skulls make them streamlined and efficient swimmers and their large webbed feet help them Propel through the water and they do a kind of like a doggy paddle motion when they swim and those large Paws webbed Paws actually act as snowshoes on land as well and a little cool thing about their fur which just I didn't write this down it's just kind of a side note Arctic wolves when I worked at the Wolf Center we had a few Arctic wolves and we did you know educational talks about their physical adaptations that reminded me a lot of polar bears so kind of similar so polar bears have black skin and two layers of fur they have this like Downy thicker undercoat and then these long guard hairs that are actually transparent like they you look at a polar breand you think it's it's white but their fur is not white it's transparent and the way that their guard hairs are they help um retain the heat from the Sun with their along with their black skin and it also helps insulate them and helps them swim through the water it's really cool oh wow that's really interesting I I had no idea and going back to swimming they're amazing swimmers and they have been documented swimming continuously 63 miles in search of their favorite prey which are seals poor things I know baby seals are probably the cutest baby animals yeah on the planet the puppies of the ocean and even though the polar bears are amazing swimmers catching seals in open water is super tricky business and they're often very successful just straight up swimming I mean seals are Far and Away better swimmers more agile so polar bears have evolved a hunting adaptation that makes them more successful hunters and it's through a method called still hunting so the bear will wait for hours sometimes even days outside of a small breathing hole that seals pop out of in the ice so once the seal surfaces to catch a breath the Bears will grab it by its head and pull it out of the the water and and eat it consume it from there smart it very smart I mean it's a waiting game I mean for hours and days going come up you're going to come up sometime I'll be here exactly and when they find seals on land typically in a den-like structure under layers of snow the Bears will stand up on their hind legs for momentum and come down hard on all fours on their front paws to break the roof of the snow structure that seals hide underneath and they'll extract them from there and I did learn one of the coolest facts in a long time I think doing research on polar bears and they they don't drink water what what do they do I I know I'm like wait hold on what so they need water just like every other animal but because they spend so much time out in the middle of the ocean obviously surrounded by saline water and all the fresh water is in the form of frozen solid ice or snow and obviously if you're you you know you can eat snow and melt ice in your mouth but but metabolically speaking that's a huge waste of energy so what they do they have evolved to get their water from a chemical reaction that breaks down fat so when they consume their prey they actually just go for the blubber and typically leave the rest behind for other scavengers like wolves or Fox so they're not eating the meat they have a or sometimes they do but they're going after the blubber because it's super high in fat in which they extract the water out of so they're food food is their water and their meal yes yes that's so interesting I know I was like Blown Away by that for some reason you know it does kind of make sense because they're in these Arctic regions that like you said fresh water is completely Frozen and then they're surrounded by ocean water so what would they drink exactly I I guess it's something that you never really thought of before but once you do you're like oh yeah wait a second it's kind of like when I realize where how pineapples grow like it's one of those things where when you realize how it happens you're like never thought of this before but now that I know it's not what I thought it was going to be like yeah like my mind and my world has changed forever yeah over the last several decades polar bear Behavior has been changing and we'll get into that a little more later on but what is important to know for right now is that polar bears are spending more and more time on land as their traditional hunting grounds the sea ice disappears and they need to improvise so that's a little bit on polar bears and that brings us back to the giant stalking polar bear of this camp that is correct so we're back to the night of July 22nd Matt had stayed up for quite a while that night actually he was very anxious and he could not keep his eyes off of this bear on the ledge it was super nerve-wracking having the top of the food chain just perched above Camp leisurely gazing down at them without a care in the world yeah and as the afternoon went on the group went about their routine but the animal was still there still watching and everyone in the group was a bit uneasy and at first they spent time on and off kind of keeping their eyes and keeping track of the animal they Ed their zoom lenses on their cameras to get a closer look at it who just spent hours resting on its paws rolling onto its back kind of like that picture you showed me in the beginning of the episode just kind of just all around chilling as the hours passed the bear to some just seemed like part of the landscape now and the uneasy that they felt in the beginning kind of started to melt away they started preparing dinner they cleaned up and prepared for bed but this melting of uneasiness was not the case for Matt he was worried and he even suggested that everyone take two hour shifts watching the animal throughout the night for safety purposes but his suggestion was outvoted because they had an electric fence so three foot electric fence maybe if it was like 88t I'd be like yeah you're good but 3 ft what is that keeping out I'm just curious I I don't know it's supposed to act as DET turn and I mean there are some cases where electric fence is rigged also with flares so if it it's like it's kind of like a tripwire electric fence combo so if something just Ian if fireworks go off if you touch the fence then I guess it can be 3T tall but but they did not have that just just to clarify yeah they did not have that H I'm getting more and more nervous for these people they packed in for the night and they all went into their tents Matt cracked open a book before he drifted off to sleep and that night another member of the group Larry woke up several times to screams and murmur but he found out it was Marta having nightmares and her husband KOB was soothing her back to bed each time though that he woke up to this he would peek out of his tent to check on the bear to see if it was still there and each and every time he looked it was until around 11:00 at night and the bear had finally gone away to where we don't know the next day brought a bit of change of plans it was super cold and rainy so instead of breaking down camp and trekking all day as planned they decided to dedicate the day to exploring again so they didn't move Camp they kept the camp where it was and they went off on a hike they saw more Wildlife including whales in the F and filled the hours with hiking and taking photos phot and they even had a happy hour celebration when they got back to Camp filled with bardi 151 mixed with lemonade and a side of salami and crackers before turning in for their second night in the park I was just going to say 151 rum is like my alcohol you know everyone has their alcohol that they can't do anymore 151 rum is my alcohol that I can never do again bardi dragonberry is mine everyone everyone has one everyone has a knight and we all kind of remember it a little bit enough that we know we can't drink it again okay you don't remember but your body remembers your body will violently throw up if you even smell it my you know what was that song in college was super popular it's like 151 rum malib till the cops come never again never again that's for sure so these people somehow for some reason they didn't have a horrific college experience that deterred them from 151 so they had that as their drink went to bed everything was good until it wasn't at 3:30 a.m. something woke Matt up for a brief moment he laid there on his back in the silent Stillness until a shadow passed over his eyes as his eyes adjusted the shadow became clear it was the dark dark silhouette of a bear bear en Camp he managed to yell just moments before the bear descended fully on top of him the bear was frantically pawing at him using its 12in in diameter Paws armed with 2in long claws to grab a hold of Matt but what it was really searching for was Matt's head and he found it the bear grabbed a hold of Matt's head with its jaws wrapped around his skull hooking under his right jaw Matt was screaming he's got me oh he's got me as he attempted to cover his head with his hands but the bear was mouthing him crushing his left hand in an instant Matt felt the bear tugging at him trying to remove him from the tent tugging and crushing tugging and crushing he could feel the animal's fur rubbing against the thin nylon fabric of his tent help me help me he was screaming as the bear successfully ripped him loose from the tent the bear flung backwards with Matt in his jaws and they both slammed onto the ground Matt felt a sharp pain simultaneously in his jaw and his chest and heard the sounds of cracking his lung had collapsed and his jaw was smashed the next thing he knew the scenery he was admiring earlier that day was rushing by him in a blur a mixture of Beach and white creamy fur was all he could see hot Huffs of foul smelling Seafood breath flooded over Matt's mouth and ears and saliva poured over his head and torso he was being dragged towards the water still very much conscious Matt Matt began thinking of his family his wife his father wondering if they would be okay after his death on the subject of death he thought of nature how kind it was to make a body like this with no pain in the final moments of life I hope this is how everyone goes he thought any moment now I'll be in the water and that's it lights out you're going to die we all die this is it you're going home wow what accept what Acceptance in like a a moment there in such a crazy scary final moment too it's not like a peaceful drift off sleep no and he's like well I'm thankful this is the way it ends I don't I hope everyone gets to experience this kind of calm and he's getting dragged by a polar bear by his head by his head I'm like I I don't wish that for myself thank you well he had a come to Jesus moment for sure for sure to his shock he was released and he felt his body thud onto the Sandy grass of the coast just a few feet from the water then muffled screams and the sounds of large Paws padding away he stayed still pretending to be dead and then everything went black earlier that night as the group was packing in trip lead Rich gross was going over worst case scenarios scanning the campsite and taking mental note of the location of the flare guns and the satellite phone for the last 15 years of running Sierra Club outings this mental check list was second nature to him he would do it every night the tents were configured in a tight cluster in two rows of three surrounded by the electric fencing as everyone said good night he retired into his own tent double-checking his flare gun location for the last time and it was right where it needed to be cocked and in his boot right next to his head he awoke to Darkness filled with frantic screams someone was calling his name rich rich it was Marta she was screaming for him reaching for the gun he burst out of his tent and scanned the perimeter the electric fencing was collapsed and crackling in one area and not far from it a tent Half tattered half gone laid in a crumpled mess on the ground his eyes were darting back and forth scanning the area and about 75 ft away he spotted it a large bear running away from camp with a body in its mouth and at this point he had no way of knowing who this was everything was happening so fast it was the middle of the night it was dark so they didn't he didn't hear him screaming cuz Matt was screaming but this happened so fast like he a woke to his name being screamed because Matt screamed right away as the bear grabbed him so everybody else kind of woke up and so rich just the first thing that caught his attention was Marta screaming his name okay because by the time he gets out of his tent Matt's already 75 ft away it's happened literally in an instant yep he raised the flare gun to the bear and fired shooting the flare directly in the Bear's path Rich watched as the bear dropped the body which he could clearly see now was matx and the bear retreated about 50 yards away but not for long the bear quickly turned around and began running back to collect Matt's body Rich fired a second flare which landed right in front of the bear's feet and this did it this finally sent the polar bear running the moments felt like ages as the group paused for enough time to confirmed that the animal was truly gone and not going to charge them if they approached Matt and after verifying that no one could see the polar bear anymore they rushed towards Matt and they assumed he was dead they're like there's no way he's alive as they approached him he was motionless but his eyes were open and moving from side to side his chest was moving up and down he was alive Matt was scooped up and brought back to Camp where Rick Eisenberg the retired physician was waiting jumping into action Rick began working on assessing Matt's condition he had not practiced medicine for almost 15 years at this point but he knew what to do and he jumped right into action Matt was Bloody bruised and had punctures all over him but he had regained Consciousness and was trying the best he could to speak with his jaw shattered saying thank you oh my god thank you Marta called for help and another group member Marilyn took the first watch standing guard with a flare in her hand head on a swivel in case the bear decided to come back the fence was toast at this point the flares were all they had Marta called The Royal Canadian mountain police Parks Canada and base camp which was right outside of the park but it was the middle of the night and they had a difficult time reaching anyone which is like you're calling the police police don't sleep okay like what do you mean it's like sorry we're not on our shift 7 a.m. when people come back to the office yeah that's not a thing back in the makeshift medical tent Rick examined Matt the Bear's teeth had left punctures on his head arms hands and neck but he was stable Marta finally got a hold of help but it wouldn't be until Daybreak at 7:30 a.m. a full 5 hours before a helicopter would reach them when the helicopter landed medic Larry Bandridge rushed to Matt and Rick inquiring on his status and assessing his condition further they loaded him up onto a stretcher and the men carried Matt onto the helicopter and Rick actually climbed in the helicopter with them and they lifted off on the ground the helicopter left a man named Jacko with the remaining Sierra club members he was a Parks Canada licensed bear guard and was left to help guard the group until their boat came and he had a weapon other than a flare gun he had a rifle just so everyone's clear while he was gathering wood for a fire he told the group that when they were Landing the helicopter he had been scanning the surrounding area carefully and had noticed a large polar bear within a few hundred yards of their Camp so the polar bear has not left has not left and the group although this was really unsettling they were obviously very happy that an armed bear guard was now with them because it would be another 12 hours until a boat came to extract them it's a long time to be stuck in the same spot a bear attack happened mhm during the flight Matt was given pain meds and was speaking as best he could with Larry the medic and he was even cracking some jokes with him his wounds were bleeding but they weren't gushing which was good news to the medic and overall Larry was very pleased with Matt's condition although he wasn't out of the woods yet it could have been and often was far far worse you know the whole if it's white good night thing yeah he's alive there's a reason for that the med flight made it to the torat mountains base camp and Research Center pretty quickly where the opter landed and Matt was taken to the medic tent the bandages placed in the field by Rick were carefully removed the bandages on his hand arms and skull revealed damage but not nearly as bad as Larry had anticipated and he was like I said pretty pleased until he moved the bandage that was laying over his neck Larry was struck with a rancid smell there was a hole the width of a pencil that went behind his jugular and straight towards his esophagus he had estimated that Matt had either inhal or Swallowed at least half a liter of blood that had now entered his lungs and were turning rancid and this changed everything Matt was not so stable after all he was quickly whisked back into the helicopter and transported to Montreal where he was admitted into the ICU placed into a medically induced coma and went into surgery when he awoke he was welcomed by the sight of his wife who had been notified by one of the group members hours prior and she rushed from Maine to be by his side match jaw was wired shut but the tears in his eyes spoke louder than words I love you and I'm going to make it in all the bear had broken several vertebrae in Matt's neck filleted his neck directly over and exposing his chided artery punctured a tendon in his right arm and crushed his jaw his left hand had full thickness puncture wounds and his skull was left with dozens of puncture wounds that became severely infected he had a collapsed lung and significant damage to his larynx that left him unable to speak for weeks and actually resulted in permanent vocal cord damage so he speaks now with a really rough and raspy voice his Sierra Club travel companions arrived to the hospital on July 27th and they all took turns going in in small groups and pairs to visit him which Matt only recalls portions of because he was on a lot of painkillers and pain medication and it left him really loopy Fair his jaw was wired shut so he couldn't speak and he also had tubes pouring out of of his neck he was unable to verbally communicate but when Rich and Marta arrived at his bedside he asked for a pen and paper where's next year's trip planned sign me up I like the spirit he's like if I survive this next year it's going to be a piece of cake let's go so clearly Matt has a sense of humor but he wasn't exactly kidding about wanting to be signed up for the next trip because a year later just 13 months actually after his incident in torat Mountains National Park he went back to the same park yep oh he says my last trip there got cut off so short there was more things I wanted to see more time I wanted to spend there so he wanted to return once again he had never been through trauma like that and viewed this trip as an opportunity for a way to kind of work through the trauma he was experiencing and kind of as a trip that would provide some closure for him did he get a taller electric fence this time he did not so he he did a couple of things differently okay he arrived in the park and walked into the base camp building where he once again viewed the mandatory bear safety video he hopped aboard a boat and he traveled this time with a film crew and two heavily armed guides who also served as bear guards to the site of the incident so he went right back to his camp seal bones and fox carcasses were strewn along the sandy beach and there were polar bear prints dotting the sand fresh his bear guards noted while crouching down to examine the prince likely from this morning Matt pointed out where they first noticed the female polar bear in the Cub where his tent was where the large male bear was hanging out on the ledge and where he was dragged away towards the shoreline he was essentially reliving what was quite possibly the worst moments of his life what was almost the end of his life with a mixture of jokes Gruff laughs and Misty Eyes less than 15 minutes after arriving at the incident site a large curious bear was spotted the group took that as their queue to leave and they hopped back aboard the boat that they would be sleeping in for this trip they were not camping on land much better idea yeah the group spent three more days in total in the park and saw eight more bears Matt was filled with an immense sense of Peace among the landscape and the wildlife with the Bears included he took great comfort in the brother sister pair of innuit descent Maria and Eli who guarded and guided him they had been born and raised in the area and they taught as they LED pointing out different features of the Arctic tundra plucking edible vegetation and warning against others the patches of tall Willow were warned against Eli informed him to avoid them alt together as as the Bears frequented them and tended to congregate inside of them Matt reflected he had used them as cover to relieve himself last year during his trip walking right into them without a second thought he half joke and half nervously admitted well A Bear could have gotten me then too in a particularly vulnerable moment just shows you should have a guide with you well yeah and that he was just totally like unaware like didn't even think twice about it a lot didn't know a lot of information and if you had a guide with you they could tell you all this stuff in Matt's mind getting taken out by a bear wouldn't have been the worst way to go regarding death Matt says everyone has to take the journey alone getting taken out by a bear is better than wasting away in a nursing home for 15 years losing your mind and your pants so that's his view obviously everyone's different but that is valid regarding life though Matt is still out living it he spends ample time Outdoors has gone on another Sierra Club trip this time backpacking through the Sierra Nevadas and he retains his sense of humor sitting on his desk at Pine Tree Legal is a polar bear figurine got to keep the memory there and he did I I didn't see anywhere that confirmed this but in several of the articles I read on his story he was planning on getting two polar bear tattoos on his forearms so he might be out there in Maine if you you see a guy working as a lawyer with two polar bears on his arms this is the mat that we're talking about as far as recreating in the wild especially a location so remote and Untamed obviously this comes with risk and while Parks Canada and the members of the Sierra Club outing recognized that there was a review of the events along with an investigation to determine what exactly unfolded that July and Why Judy roll super attendant of torat Mountains National Park said quote we want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence that we are providing the right messages in the right way I don't think that we've done anything wrong but there may be some things we could have done better regarding the Excursion Parks Canada Ranger Peter deing commented quote it occurred in an area where we would have and did recommend the group not camp in or travel through because here referring to the torat Mountains National Park bears are typically found throughout the coast and near the water and Judy the other Parks Canada Ranger said you would have never seen one of our bear guards agreeing to Camp there our folks here would go a minimum of 10 km which is roughly 6.2 mies Inland and even then you have to be very very careful right where they camped that's polar bear highway so they did say to not Camp along the shore but they sure didn't tell them to go over six miles Inland off away from Shore yeah they're like oh 150 yards off shore okay great like if they had that information they would have done things differently yeah I mean when you were first describing it and you kind of mentioned at the beginning of the story like you don't be right on Shore but then when you were describing their campsite they could watch polar bears on the shore I was picturing them still extremely close which obviously if you're at a Water Resource you're going to come across all types of Wildlife including huge Predators which in this case were polar bears mhm it seems pretty apparent that Park employees were taken aback when they learned where exactly the Sierra Club group chose to camp but according to Marta their group was never informed of this polar bear Highway in any of their email Communications or in-person conversations when they informed Parks Canada of their itinerary while they were at base camp and not once did someone advise against it or raise concern when it was communicated cuz remember they extensively went over their itinerary their plans yes obviously they picked the camp when they were actually physically there but like even when they said they were going to that particular Fjord where that location was now dubbed polar bear Highway no one raised an eyebrow about that yeah it was actually quite the contrary because at the time the area they chose to camp in was advertised as like a fun place to go like they didn't just come up with this on their own and then they and you had said that they saw remnants of an Old Camp that was there out of curiosity I just thought of it but there's a lot of polar bears here it's polar bear highway it's next to the water do these polar bears drink water I don't that's a great question I don't know there are they there because there's food resources there because other animals go there well we're going to get into that a little bit actually okay cool but to finish up this little section the advice to move the 10 km Inland was not meant mentioned on the be safety brochure or in the safety video at the time and when questioned about this later on Peter Dearing one of the parks Canada employees said it was likely because the group's trip occurred before they had a very firm understanding of the dangers that that particular area presented Parks Canada now requires any organization that leads a group into the park to apply for a business license that includes a polar bear protection plan that outlines how they will protect themselves from the animals including specifics like how guides will operate in polar bear country where they will camp and how they would respond to a bear sighting and although it is still not required it is highly recommended to travel with bear guards a lot of animal encounter stories we have covered in the past have some sort of aspect of closure to them meaning that the animal was tracked and put down and we kind of glean some insight into maybe some answers about why the encounter or the attack happened based off of the condition of the individual like if you remember injuries or malnourishment have been documented in several of the stories that we have discussed like the Sava Lions the chumawa tiger and obviously the Grizzlies and Glacier but in this case the bear responsible for the attack on Matt was not killed so it's impossible to know if there was an underlying prompt to this attack it could have possibly been that this individual animal sustained an injury that made it difficult to hunt its typical prey it could have been young or inexperienced or it could have been adapting to a rapidly changing environment climate change climate change here we go so it would be a gargantuan task to discuss global climate change thoroughly so to give just a glimpse into how big in the Years Between 1979 and 2014 roughly 695,000 square miles which is about the size of California Nevada Oregon Washington Arizona Utah and most of Idaho combined of Arctic sea ice has been lost that's really scary the implications of that loss are far-reaching and that statistic is now 9 years old so who knows what it looks like now someone knows who it looks what it looks like now we could probably easily Google that but the statistic that's what it looks like now the statistic I found yeah was um I I enjoyed the reference to State sizes to kind of give everyone a a visual of how much that is instead of focusing on the global sea ice climate change relationship let's instead focus on how climate change is affecting torat National Park itself in general the area is seeing longer summers the landscape is experiencing what's called shrub ification which is when shrubs will grow taller bigger and appear in previously unknown locations all of which has been obviously scientifically studied but also noticed by the locals the landscape is much Greener and the Willows are growing taller and thicker providing increased cover for Bears to hide in which makes it much more difficult for Bear guards to spot them but not only does this affect Bears it affects people excessive shrubs have an impact on travel by making Transportation via snowmobiles more dangerous and has also impacted local food production and gathering with reduced Berry availability and productivity like in abundance and diversity which negatively impacts the local Caribou population of that important food source is now impacting the local Inuit people who rely on the Caribou everything's connected everything it all comes back everything is connected longer summers also translates into more thaing of the sea ice compared to the 1970s there is an average of 50 days longer each season of no ice in the area of course this is a huge problem for polar bears in particular as they have evolved to live and hunt on the sea ice the Bears spend their Winters there but with the rapid melting of the ice the animals are being forced to spend more and more time on land the Bears coming to land seem more Curious and Bolder than they have in previous decades as well one local commented that when they were growing up 40 years ago life was way different polar bear sightings were much less frequent and when venturing Outdoors for recreation hunting or fishing carrying a weapon wasn't a worry whereas now it would be foolish to not carry a weapon or a deterrent so how does all of this affect polar bear behavior and what does that mean for polar bear human interactions between 1960 and 2009 there was a reported 47 attacks by polar bears on people ranging between 7 to 12 per decade but between 2010 and 2014 when the sea ice reached record lows there were 15 attacks the greatest number ever recorded in a 4-year period also since 2000 88% of these attacks have occurred between July and December when sea ice is at the lowest of the year after each bare episode we cover we almost always receive a message or an email from someone with this little jingle if it's black fight back if it's brown lay down and if it's white good night as a general rule of thumb regarding bare human interactions and what to do in encounters polar bears have clearly been stereotyped as being aggressive hence the if it's white good night but it's important to note that they are normally cautious in confrontations with people and will choose to escape rather than fight well-fed Bears rarely engage with people but hungry animals can be very unpredictable as we talked about earlier polar bears are stealth Hunters meaning the victim is more often than not in entirely unaware of their presence until it's too late land polar bear encounters are more likely to be predatory in nature as well and are almost always fatal as a response to the increase in bare human interactions many innuit communities have called on the government to increased legal hunting quotas citing that the bare populations have increased to unsafe levels however it's also important to note just because people are seeing more and more polar bears doesn't actually mean there are more of them sightings Al loone is not a reliable indicator of a population at face value because as we just talked about their patterns are changing they're coming to land more and more often seeking alternative food sources and although it's difficult to estimate the current global population of polar bearss biologist place a working estimate between 20 and 31,000 worldwide with a sharp downward Trend us Geological Survey scientists have predicted that 2third of the world's polar bears may disappear by 2050 depending on the country the iucn red list categorizes them as either vulnerable of special concern threatened or rare but I do need to mention that it's really important that many Inuit communities are really frustrated with the disconnect between traditional management and knowledge of polar bears and what some view as a dominant Western science approach there was a document submitted by an Inuit land claim organization that says in part quote pressure to conserve and protect polar bears from National and international environmental and non-governmental organizations climate change Advocates and the general public at large has created contention about the status of the polar bear populations the disconnect between the sentiment in certain scientific communities and innuit knowledge has been pronounced so there's kind of that's kind of a point of contention for a lot of innuit communities that are dealing directly with the implications of this heightened and quite frankly very scary human polar bear interaction situation that's going on like you know for us living here in a non-arctic community that never has to face polar bears and deal with the very real threat of them are making decisions for people who are dealing directly with them as far as Polar Bear management and that's really upsetting to a lot a lot of the Inuit communities it doesn't make sense someone with no experience or understanding what's going on to be making those decisions it's kind of a point of contention and it's something that is being worked on as we speak just kind of trying to find the the middle ground between like okay well we understand the frustration but this is an endangered species that is sharply declining we can't just let people kill them willy-nilly either so it's it's just a it's a tight rope walk you know a fine balance but I just wanted to mention that because it is something that it's it's a big deal and it's been it makes things complicated we can't just say well polar bears are endangered so we're not killing them anymore we just can't say that it's just such a complicated question with a lot of complicated answers you know there's not it's hard to find what exactly the right answer is especially I don't know if you you I mean you could go down this part as much as you want but humans are contributing to the r people always say climate change a lot of people say climate change is inevitable it would be happening anyway but humans are the reason that it is accept cating at the rate it is so are we also going to be accelerating the rate where animals are going into Extinction even more even though we're already the cause of it or do we adjust to what animals have to do now because we've caused this exactly it's just the one thing that came to mind this episode was oh what a tangled web we weave like it's just so complicated and there's no one easy answer and I mean like you said we could but also we could go off of this forever it's not just polar bear management it's all large carnivore management there's always someone being directly affected whether it's lions or cougars Grizzlies wolves polar bears when there's a large Predator there's always going to be conflicts and there's always going to be two sides to the story and two different opinions on how to manage those species all I'm saying is that there's no cut and dry black and white answer and that's difficult sometimes as well because polar bears are like the poster children for climate change and you see images of starving polar bears on like a small little piece of sea ice out in the middle of nowhere and with a breaks your heart it breaks your heart but it's not just like a well save the polar bears no matter what situation clearly there are many disagreements on certain aspects of polar bear management but is what is not up for debate is that climate change is affecting polar bears overall Steve amstrup the chief scientist at polar bearss International summarizes that simply by saying the change is showing up in polar bears as unusual distributions and movements unusual feeding patterns more cannibalism events declining stature so the animals are not growing as fast and they're actually getting smaller and stature individually over time and there's declining survival rates of bears I.E more bears are starving to death and there's also one last little tidbit there's also the pisle have you heard of this what's the pisle the pisle is a polar bear grizzly hybrid situation oh they're starting to breed together because they're living in the same environments now mhm so they're quite rare as of now but they have been documented in the wild as grizzly bear and polar bear habitat is starting to overlap with polar bears moving further south and Grizzlies moving further north due to the shift in climates hybridization is beginning to occur which depending on what scientist you ask could be either a good thing or or a bad thing but in conclusion unabated global warming is going to affect all species and all ecosystems eventually it just so happens that polar bears are already being affected because there is such a direct relationship between their habitat and overall Global temperature at face value and at first glance what happened to Matthew Dyer in July of 2013 in torat Mountains National Park was a total freak accident an unlucky hand and while that does hold true upon closer inspection there is way more to this story and there are more victims than one and that is it well thank you for telling that story I think that I can collectively say for every single person listening that we're stoked that you did a bear attack episode and I'm stoked that you tied it into one just facts about polar bears but then also tying it into real time issues that are going on I think it's such a fun way to make people interested and you hear a bear attack you want to know why you want to know what's going on and you really pulled that all together into one so I think this was a really cool episode to do well thank you I definitely had to reel it in because there's just so much information on this and it's such a complex topic and of course it's you know it it's not easy to kind of make concise because there are so many moving parts and mhm like when I first heard of this story I was like oh like what a what a random unlucky like event like the chances of you getting attacked by a polar bear like that's nuts like that's just a really unfortunate event but there's reasons to this stuff and I we get this question a lot like what is our favorite topic to research and why and mine is definitely animal episodes because like I mentioned earlier there's almost always a reason for this like yeah sometimes there could be a rogue animal a rogue incident like just it's really unlucky and unfortunate and it's just a complete accident and it sucks but more often than not there's a driving force behind that whether it's altered Behavior because of food conditioning that we do or habitat fragmentation that is a result of us or climate change or injury or whatever there's just there's always more to the story and I think that that is part of the reason I just love doing animal episodes because the encounter itself is crazy like Matt's story in of itself is nuts mhm but what's more interesting to me is what led up to that in the aftermath and what we can learn from that and the information we can glean from a story like this and Matt and his entire group Sierra Club group did not want advocated against them tracking down and killing that bear and they understand you know they went into it knowing the risks and although it was a Terri outcome it could have been worse but they it was something in the back of their mind that they were prepared for and kind of weren't shocked by what a terrible way to like if they had if that had been something that had happened where they did Kill the bear they went into that bear's habitat in a location where almost no people Venture into and that happened it would just be it would be really sad to see something like that happen in a situation that it would probably be very rare that would be another bear attack on someone else right yeah so um and I of course like also left out the entire subject of there are communities in the Arctic and subarctic that are like becoming basically like polar bear fortresses like they're leading kind of this initiative of successfully living in polar bear country where there's a huge rise in polar bear human interactions and kind of what they're doing to successfully live in this kind of rapidly changing environment and changing behaviors with the Bears and all that cuz obviously people have been coexisting with polar bears for hundreds of thousands of years yeah but there's just such a shift in the typical historical polar bear behavior that now we need to change and it's like there are certain communities that are doing that instead of just eradicating all the Bears they're also adapting to this change they're learning to live with them mhm so that's really cool a whole another thing but we're already I'm sure like you know very uh well I'm I'm good with polar bears for now I I literally had like polar bears Dancing in my Head for the last week in my dreams in my mind sharing polar bear facts with random people like do you know that polar bears don't drink water do you know the lar trivia question like that's something everyone's going to get at trivia I don't know I I would be so pumped every time I go to trivia I love going to trivia bar trivia I wait patiently for my time to shine with like an animal category and it never happens there's categories about everything except for Animals I'm like what is going on am I going to the wrong trivia here like what is happening anyways I hope everyone enjoyed that there is tons of information about everything we talked about from the sea ice decline to Matt himself his story there's a lot of videos of him out there talking about his story sharing his story and um so if you want to learn more there's all those resources out there for you but in the meantime I'm good with polar bears for now thank you for joining us we'll see you next week in the meantime enjoy the view but watch your back there might be a polar bear okay goodbye [Music] bye thank you for joining us again this week if you have a trail tale you'd like to share send us an email at npad stories gmail.com follow us on Instagram and Facebook at nationalpark after dark and on Twitter at npad podcast become an outsider by joining our patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content and remember when you support our partners you're supporting our show to access our special discount codes along with Source 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