Skip to content

Polar bear hitches ride on iceberg, visits coastal Newfoundland town

ST. ANTHONY, N.L. — Mother Nature came through in a big way to help cap off an annual Newfoundland iceberg festival.
12263115_web1_CPT108481648

ST. ANTHONY, N.L. — Mother Nature came through in a big way to help cap off an annual Newfoundland iceberg festival.

The icebergs moved in, bringing with them a special visitor — a polar bear.

After people donned costumes for the polar bear dip Sunday morning in Raleigh, N.L., a real polar bear came ashore that evening in nearby St. Lunaire-Griquet on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula.

Thresa Burden, who lives in the town, says the healthy-looking bear wandered curiously near some sheds along the shoreline.

She says the bear was seen swimming towards an opening to the Atlantic Ocean and has not been spotted today, so its assumed the animal hopped back on the pack ice to continue its journey.

Burden says it’s not unusual for a polar bear to come ashore in the community, but it was surprising to see one so late into spring.