{"id":10719,"date":"2016-09-16T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/?p=10719"},"modified":"2016-09-19T10:37:47","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T09:37:47","slug":"fieldwork-fails-standoff-with-polar-bears-ends-after-help-from-a-passing-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/2016\/09\/16\/fieldwork-fails-standoff-with-polar-bears-ends-after-help-from-a-passing-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Fieldwork fails: A polar bear stand-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian researchers saved from\u00a0becoming\u00a0an easy meal for hungry predators<\/h2>\n
\"Polar<\/a>

Polar bears investigate the submarine USS Honolulu 450 kilometres (280 mi) from the North Pole in 2003{credit}U.S. Navy footage\/video{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n

Weather scientists on Troynoy Island in the Kara Sea were saved from an ongoing siege with some more permanent residents of the island on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.<\/p>\n

Seven bears had surrounded a weather station on the island, in the Russian arctic, and held five researchers captive inside over the past few days. Despite being outnumbered, the scientists have managed to reclaim their research territory with the help of more flares, dogs, and a helicopter visit \u2013 all provided by a passing ship crewed by fellow researchers.<\/p>\n

The bears \u2013 members of an endangered species that Nature<\/em> drew attention to<\/a> on Wednesday \u2013 had killed one of the two dogs based at the station, and smashed some of the station\u2019s windows, whilst scientists remained trapped inside. \u00a0Due to their protected species status, researchers rely on flares to drive the bears away \u2013 a problem when supplies are low.<\/p>\n

Supplies weren\u2019t just low for the researchers. With a warming arctic climate and limited sources of food, some have suggested that polar bear aggression towards humans is on the rise across the arctic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A PhD is more than just research training<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weather scientists on Troynoy Island in the Kara Sea were saved from an ongoing siege with some more permanent residents of the island on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90925,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,86,419,1327,199],"tags":[3893719,3893717,253,3893713,2626127,3893711,256,3893715],"class_list":["post-10719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-2","category-europe","category-in-the-news","category-perspectives","category-research-2","tag-arctic","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-fails","tag-fieldwork","tag-polar-bears","tag-science","tag-siege"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90925"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}