When in Alaska beware of camera-shy polar bears

Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, this paparazzi-plagued polar bear feels your pain.

Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, this paparazzi-plagued polar bear feels your pain.

Fed up with a pack of tourists clamoring to snap his photo, the Arctic behemoth charged the group. When the shooters scattered, leaving their tripods unprotected on the ice, the camera-shy bear grabbed one and took off.

The bear was one of three out for a stroll in Kaktovik, a town on Barter Island off the northern Alaska coast, when they encountered the nature enthusiasts.

“One of the bears got curious and started running across the ice towards us. The adrenaline was flowing as we kept taking pictures, but then suddenly realized how close the bear was getting, so snatched up our gear and dived into the trucks,” tourist Peter Haworth told Britain’s Daily Mail.

Haworth said he managed to snap several shots as the bear barreled through three tripods before grabbing one in its powerful jaws and lumbering back to its two traveling companions.

“He started playing with it, then began jumping on it, chewing it and finally walking off with it,” Haworth said.

It turns out the bear has great taste when it comes to camera equipment. The Gitzo carbon fiber tripod it selected is top-of-the-line and costs more than $500.

“When he walked off with it, we couldn’t stop laughing and joking as he had selected the most expensive,” Haworth said.

“He seemed to handle the tripod very well for a bear,” he added. “Perhaps he thought of himself as a photographer or just didn’t want his picture taken.”

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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