A dramatic wildlife encounter is going viral again showing a man sitting inside a small protective enclosure while a massive polar bear approaches and begins investigating the structure.
But despite the frightening appearance of the footage, the video is not from a recent incident.
WATCH THE VIDEO
The footage comes from the BBC nature documentary The Polar Bear Family & Me, which originally aired in January 2013.
Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan traveled to Svalbard in the Arctic to film a family of wild polar bears. As part of the project, Buchanan used a specially designed protective filming hide known as the “Ice Cube” to get unusually close to the animals.
During one encounter, a polar bear approached the enclosure while Buchanan was inside.
The bear became increasingly interested in the structure, sniffing around it and investigating the enclosure from different angles.
According to reports about the footage, the encounter continued for roughly 40 minutes. The bear pawed and pushed at the protective enclosure while Buchanan remained inside and narrated what was happening.
From inside the hide, Buchanan could see just how powerful the animal was.
The footage is particularly intense because the polar bear appears to be only inches away from him, separated by the reinforced transparent walls of the enclosure.
The purpose of the setup was to allow Buchanan to film polar bears at extremely close range while maintaining a protective barrier between the cameraman and the animal.
The documentary followed a wild polar bear family over several seasons in Svalbard, including a mother named Lyra and her cubs.
The viral clips circulating online can make the encounter look like a spontaneous incident, but it was actually part of a planned wildlife-documentary project.
And importantly, the footage should not be interpreted as evidence that the man was simply standing unprotected in front of a wild polar bear.
He was inside a purpose-built protective filming hide.
The encounter nevertheless demonstrates how dangerous and unpredictable close encounters with polar bears can be.
The BBC documentary originally aired in 2013, meaning videos being reposted today are old footage rather than a new polar-bear incident.
The footage remains memorable because it gives viewers an unusually close look at one of the Arctic’s most powerful predators — while showing what happens when a curious polar bear encounters a human inside a protective enclosure.
Source: BBC’s The Polar Bear Family & Me and contemporary reports about Gordon Buchanan’s encounter.
