A female polar bear was seen digging into the carcass of a beached sperm whale on the coast of Norway's Svalbard archipelago.

Footage recorded by Bob Humphries in August 2017 shows the bear chewing at the huge decomposing carcass.

Humphries said: "Food is scarce, so a beached dead whale acts as a magnet for all of the polar bears close enough to detect the decomposing carcass with their excellent sense of smell."

One of the best places to see Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) is in the Norwegian Arctic in the Svalbard Archipelago. Food is scarce, so a beached dead whale acts as a magnet for all of the Polar Bears close enough to detect the decomposing carcass with their excellent sense of smell . Several bears visited this Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) carcass on a stony beach on Danskøya (Danes Island) over a week or more to feed, mostly alone, in order to avoid conflict with other Polar Bears. This female Polar Bear tore flesh and connective tissue from both ends of the whale carcass, with huge, chicken-sized Glaucous Gulls (Larus hyperboreus) waiting close by. The female Polar Bear was watched by tourists from the safety of Zodiacs just offshore.