Dave Wynne-Jones
Greenland Bears
The first training photo shows the bear
head back, curious, ears cocked;
time to try a flare or a ‘bear-banger’.
The second, head down, ears back, eyes locked
like lasers on the cameraman;
click the safety off and aim the rifle.
For target practice, an oil drum at the airstrip
helped us learn to cope with the recoil, and more:
Aim for the thorax, the heart, and keep firing;
one shot won’t do if it’s not an explosive round.
Don’t waste time on a head-shot; the skull is like steel.
And never forget to an apex predator
you’re just potential food.
For three weeks the team took turns to carry the rifle.
It’s a precaution. Most bears will be out on the pack-ice,
hunting seal unless the hunting’s bad
in which case they’ll trek up the frozen fjords
to hunt for musk ox in the interior.
I made a mental note not to camp in the fjords.
Trip wires aren’t reliable.
Read about that death in Svalbard?
They had a tripwire;
you’d best take a dog.
The bears are hunted here
so will steer clear
hearing barking, though
more often it’s the scent they catch.
Same for the dog, even asleep
their senses are still alert.
At Ittoqqortoormiit we saw the skins;
pure white, stretched on racks to dry
against house walls; 30 a year permitted–
hunting the only option where farming’s impossible–
since seal pups cannot now be clubbed to death,
when dog teams can’t be fed, they will be shot.
At the polynya armed local Inuit
guide photographers and film-makers
to capture images and clips of bears,
hunting seal or walrus,
or having fed, lazing on the ice.