The Wonder of Polar Bears

This month’s Men’s Journal has a nice profile by Jacques Leslie of Richard Nelson, a naturalist and radio personality, and a recent trip Nelson took to Kaktovik, Alaska, to narrate a monologue about the polar bear.

Seeing an animal through the eyes of someone who truly loves the natural world, and has spend a lifetime studying a particular kind of place, is always a treat. Leslie doesn’t disappoint. I was particularly struck by this bit:

“Whenever I look at these animals, I think about what they’ve seen and what they’ve done,“ [Nelson] said. “Look at that bear”--it was tossing a strip of whale sinew into the air. “That bear has lived for years by killing seals and traversing thousands of miles of sea ice--things that are absolutely beyond our comprehension. What is it like to be able to smell a seal beneath the sea ice through a breathing hole? You think of this bear finding a seal and launching up and grabbing it--you are looking at a flat-out miracle…. The Iñupiat people know they’re surrounded by miracles--it’s no wonder they treat the world as a supernatural thing.

You can hear all of Nelson’s polar bear monologue here.

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