The polar bear as object of amusement

The most disturbing and deplorable aspect of nineteenth century encounters with polar bears was a perverse manipulation of the bond between a female and her cubs, a common amusement of sailors aboard whaling and sealing ships. William Scoresby tells of an incident involving walrus hunters who had set fire to a pile of blubber to attract bears. A female and two cubs drew near. The female settled her cubs at a short distance and then started trying to hook pieces of blubber out of the fire. The men watched from the safety of the deck as she fought with the flames. They threw her small bits of blubber, which she took to the cubs. As she approached them with the last piece, the men shot the two cubs  dead. For the next half hour she "laid her paws first upon one, and then the other, and endeavored to raise them up." She walked off and called to them, she licked their wounds. She went off again and "stood for some time moaning" before returning to paw them "with signs of inexpressible fondness." Bored or perhaps mortified, the men shot the female and left her on the ice with her cubs.

Sometimes a cub was taken alive, for a zoo or as a present for someone. In November 1876, a Sir Allen Young shot a female and one of her cubs from the deck of a steamship. The other cub he lassoed as a gift for the Prince of Wales. The cub fought wildly until it was secured with chains to ringbolts in the deck. The female was butchered and the cub wrapped in her skin in the hope of appeasing him. Three or four days later the cub succeeded in tearing free of the ringbolts. He was then placed in a small cage, where he remained for the duration of the voyage. The cub roared for hours on end and pulled at the length of chain still around his neck. He was tormented by the ship's dog, which stole his food and bit his paws. The origin of the meat he was fed can be imagined. By the time the ship reached England, the cub lay prostrate in his cage, convulsing and panting. He died a week later. "Had he lived," wrote Frank Bruckland, reflecting the attitudes of the age, "he would, no doubt, have been an honor to his country and his race." (pp. 111-113)

From Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez