RIP Horatio Chapple
RIP The Polar Bear in his Homeland
I look forward to the full investigation on what actually went wrong on this trip. There were ‘flare traps’ placed around the camp but as the telegraph (page 2 date:Sat 6th 2011) writes ‘A 7ft, 40stone bear rampaged through their tented camp ignoring traps designed to keep it at bay’
Traps can be ignored by a bear ? That doesn’t make sense!
Were there people watching the camp whilst the party were asleep ? Were there any contingency plans if the triggers failed ? This wasn’t a camp site like in Dorset or Grand Canyon, this is ‘wild’ as you can get with Polar Bears, which are among the most dangerous animals in the world.
Telegraph Online version (Sat 6th 2011) “…they learnt how to shoot the bears in an emergency and how to set traps called ‘snubledluss’ around the tents. The alarms are a network of trip wires attached to shotgun shells that go off if a bear ventures into a camp …… At this time of the year the pack ice is too thin for the bears and they are confined to land, where food is scarce. Experts believe the animal may have been driven by a hunger so intense that it ignored the alarms and drove on into the encampment, ripping open the tents.”
If the polar bears are confined more inland at this time of year, was this a safe time to go ?
How experienced were Michael Reid(29) and Andy Ruck(27) ? They are adventurers themselves but to lead a group vast as 80 ? Lots of questions need answering since two innocent lives died.
In essence this is polar bear territory.
Animals Do Have A Voice Blog 