victims

Most of the Polar Bears hunted by Leif were bulls that were a threat to us Vikings and to our livestock.

In fact, some years more Vikings were killed by Polar Bears than by any other cause. When they got a taste for humans they could and did kill and eat entire villages.

As far as our livestock they killed most often ponies and sheep. One Polar Bear in the area just killed sheep for fun, killing 15 one time and it never ate a single one of them.

Leif's neighbor had one male Polar Bear that killed five sheep in three minutes and then took only one of them off to eat, leaving the other carcases to rot. Other Polar Bears smelled the carcasses and came (they are known to be able to smell from up to 100 miles away).

They would eat sheep and then the first Polar Bear would return in a few days for another meal. Since the dominant ram was territorial and would defend the other sheep it was always him that first got killed and he was the most expensive. That left mostly defenseless sheep and the bears knew this since they were as smart as most dogs.

Some of the bears would just charge into the flock and everytime they swung a paw they would kill one or two sheep. Then they would grab one in the middle of the confusion and run off before you could even let out the breath that you had been holding from the start of the attack.

The neighbor who owned the sheep would hide in his house so he would not get eaten too. The killing of the neighbors sheep would have continued until the sheep were all dead but I put some sheep under the ledge of a cliff and when a Polar Bear came I tried to drop about a 50 pound rock on his head. I missed but all he did was stop and sniff the rock. Then I dropped another one and that one hit him right on the head killing him instantly. That is how I became a hunter of Polar Bears.

Later I got two more Polar bears when they came for a second meal.

I sold the skins and I was shocked since I made more money off of each skin than if I had farmed an entire season. I was hooked on hunting Polar Bears then.

Everyone likes harp seals and Leif was no exception. For those who seem to think it's ok to trap them for their fur, even the arctic fox has warmer fur than does a Harp Seal.

Polar Bears love Harp Seals but to eat at an average of 15 a year. They also kill but not always eat about 35 other kinds of seals each year as well as Walruses, whales and some land animals.

Polar Bears are not easy to kill creatures and few animals, including humans, ever survive a Polar Bear attack.

So, unlike today, 1000 years ago nobody cried when Polar Bears got killed.