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Photograph of the week: Polar bear in Svalbard

Polar bears, unlike their brown bear cousins, are active year-round, though they will often fast through the Summer months when restricted to land by the melting ice shelf. During the height of their feeding season an adult male bear can weigh up to 700kgs and measure up to 3 metres in length, making them the largest living species of land predator. Here a polar bear leaps across the ice floes in the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway. Although they are powerful swimmers, they prefer to stay dry and travel across the ice wherever possible. polar bear on the arctic ice, Spitsbergen Thank you to Chris McLennan of Chris McLennan Photography for permission to reproduce the image. If you have a really special photograph you would like to share with  A Luxury Travel Blog‘s readers, please contact us.

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.

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4 Comments

  1. I remember the BBC documentary a few years back on polar bears that had the snow cams that followed them around – I loved learning about these bears. Dangerous, but super gorgeous too!

  2. Beautiful but indeed very dangerous these guys. I’m planning a trip to Svalbard later this year, it sounds a fascinating place with a bit of a wild west mentality. Not sure I want to get that close to a bear though – but I’m sure he has a nice big lens on his camera for safety’s sake :-)

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