Greetings from Svalbard and Orsa
Jun 22nd, 2010 | By mervi | Category: Featured articles22.6.2010 by Pernilla Thalin, Orsa Polar World
Hello friends! It’s been quite a while since I wrote to you. The Spring just went so fast…. and I’ve made a wonderful journey to the Polar Bear Country Svalbard. During 8 exciting days I travelled by boat in the sea among ice floes and glaciers. It was unbelievable! I hope every polar bear friend can experience this some day!
I travelled with a company called Polar Quest with very experienced guides and a captain who cruised the boat very near the ice.
Vi started our journey in Longyerabyen and went north closer the ice and the north pole. Already on the second day I saw a polar bear in the wilderness for the first time in my life. Simply incredible!
I saw 21 polar bears in Svalbard – most of them from a very long distance but once I managed to catch 5 bears in the same photo. There was first a mother with her little cub eating a whale carcass when another female polar bear with two cubs – probably from last year – approached them. The mother with the little cub scared away the other family. A fantastic drama played only a couple of hundred meters from the boat!
Of course, i hade the pleasure to see many other animals like seals, walrosses, birds, Svalbard rein deers, polar foxes….
Now I’m back home again preparing our park for the summer season. On Tuesday June 22 we will open our leopard enclosure. We have 3 persian leopards – one from England, one from Tjeckien and one from Germany.
This is our female Sorya from Chessington, England.
Our darlings Ewa and Wilbär are doing just fine in the Polar World. Unfortunately it’s been raining a lot lately so almost all the snow is gone. The bears are enjoying their life anyway by playing in the water with their beloved plastic cans.
Soon we will put some fish in their ‘lake’ so they can go fishing. I saw today a fish ‘jumping’ in the water, it has survived the winter…..
Wilbär and Ewa are in good health – they eat properly and when we weighed Wilbär yesterday he had reached the respectable weight of 286 kilos.
I’m looking forward to a lovely summer and hoping to meet many readers of KWM. Welcome to Orsa!
Greetings and hugs to all polar bear friends from Pernilla
Dear Pernilla,
What a wonderful journey you’ve made! I wish I can visit Svalbard, too, one day…. Thank you so much for sharing your impressions with us.
Thank you also for your kind invitation to Orsa. I’m coming soon!
Bear hugs to you and all the fluffy friends in the Bearpark, the tigers, leopards, wolves, foxes, lynx etc from Mervi
Dear Pernilla,
to see our beloved polar bears in the wilderness seems to make one speechless. Thank you so much for sharing your “adventure” with us. The photos are wonderful and also the news that Wilbär and Ewa are doing well in their paradise.
Dear Mervi,
thanks for publishing this wonderful report in KWM.
Hugs from caren
Kära Pernilla!
Tack så mycket. Din resa var säkert mycket speciel.
Hälsa också Ewa och Wilbär. Jag hoppas, att vi kann resa till Orsa i höstas.
TBM
Ooooh, hat mir das gut gefallen.Ich habe 2004 dieses Abenteuer erleben dürfen.Mit der M/V Professor Multanovskiy.Ein Erlebnis, das ich niemals vergessen werde.Wir haben damals 9 Eisbären live gesehen.Es war aber auch viel später, Anfang August damals.Der Vorteil der späteren Reise war, dass wir die Insel komplett umrunden konnten.Vielen Dank für diesen Bericht, jetzt schwelge ich in Erinnerungen.
Dass es Wilbär und Ewa so gut geht, freut mich so sehr.Gerade jetzt.
Irgendwann komme ich nach Orsa, ganz bestimmt.
Liebe Grüße, BrigitteE
Dear Penilla,
thank you for taking us along on this trip and sharing your great photos with us.
I certainly do wish I could have been aboard the ship.
Hearing that Wilbär and Ewa are getting along fine is also making me very happy.
Herzlichst
Bärgit
Dear Pernilla,
Thank you for sharing your trip to Polar Bear country….what a wonderful experience…the pictures of the two mamas and their cubs is fascinating….the little one standing up…the other family fleeing…..what a picture! Thanks again….xo k-j
Dear Pernilla
Thank you for the wonderful report of your journey to svalbard.
The picture with the two bear mamas and their three cubs is beautiful.
And that wilbär weights nearly 300 kilos is very good – he is becoming a big bear!
Crissi
Pernilla,
What an interesting, fascinating and detailed report of the icy wonderland. Breathtaking is one word I would use very liberally here. The serenity is almost Zen-like in its impact. Beautiful photos tell the story without even the need for words. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I can’t believe my Wilbar is already 286 kilos and still growing. He’s such a precious little one and may he and Ewa always be happy. Thank you for taking such good care of them both.
Dear Pernilla, thank you so much for your report and pictures. It must indeed have been wonderful to see these white giants in the wild. But also the walruss is a big boy with serious teeth. And so, Wilbar is now weighting 286 kg, AMAAI, what a fat potatoe.
Already looking forward to the next pictures of him and Ewa.
Have a nice Summer.
Dear Pernilla
thank you so much for the wonderfull report of your jpurney. It must be great to see all the animals in the nature
LG
Bea
Dear Pernilla,
Your trip sounds wonderful! I hope to go to Churchill in Canada some day on a similar trip.
Thank you, as always, for the updates about Ewa and Wilbar, as well,
LG, Christine
wow, incredible!!
Dear Pernilla, what a surprise to discover on an already near to hot summer morning at 07:00 AM in Berlin!? You must have been completely out of yourself when you met those two polar bear families. It quite makes my flesh crawl! Your pictures of the walrosses are also worth to be published! And “your” Lady SORYA in ORSA is a right beauty! I am sure, MERVI will have a more than good time when spending some days of her annual leave at your place, starting July 2nd [come close, I have to tell you something: that's her birthday!!]. Thank you so much to let us accompany you a bit in your exciting holidays even more up North than youself are. KnuGio-hug to you and WILBÄRle&EWA.