On January 26, Konstantin Rovtytagin, a resident of the village of Neshkan in the Chukotka Autonomous Area, rode off in his dog sled to find food for his dogs. He headed towards a place east of the village where a walrus carcass washed ashore during a storm last autumn. Mr Rovtytagin promptly noticed that the area was swarming with polar bears. They frequent this part of the Chukotka coast from January until March, while searching for snow-covered whale and walrus carcasses. As he approached a walrus carcass, Mr Rovtytagin saw a young and well-fed male bear about 300 metres away. The predator was walking on the windward side and sensed the man and the dogs before they noticed him. “I call this good luck. If the dogs had seen him, they would have given chase, no matter what, and it would have been hard to stop them. This time, the bear managed to run away,” Rovtytagin noted.

After returning home, he promptly called polar bear experts in Moscow and told them about the encounter. “These pieces of information eventually fit into a fascinating mosaic that allows scientists to find better ways of preventing conflicts between humans and polar bears,” said Viktor Nikiforov, head of the Bear Patrol programme at WWF Russia.