Polar Bear - Svalbard - 1

There are more polar bears in Svalbard than people, in 2011 there were an estimated 3,000 bears against a human population of 2,394. When leaving the main habitations you are advised to carry an armament with you, a proper big polar bear scaring or killing armament as there have been instances of people being killed by bears because they didn't have a big enough gun.A young man of 17 was killed in August 2011 and two of his companions badly injured while camping on Svalbard.

Probably the safest way to see polar bears is on a cruise where the bear is on land and you are in a boat, if you go on such a cruise you are almost guaranteed to see at least one bear, we saw an average of one a day for a fortnight.