SCARIEST Arctic Animals

From an arctic marine creature who’s tusk was once thought to be a unicorn’s horn to an animal that has the longest known lifespan on the planet, here’s our pick of the scariest arctic animals. Subscribe to Epic Wildlife http://goo.gl/6rzs5u Let's Connect -- http://www.epicadamwildlife.com/ -- http://www.facebook.com/epicadamwildlife -- http://www.twitter.com/epicwildlife -- http://gplus.to/epicwildlife Polar Bear Sailors received some unexpected visitors while they were surfaced in the submarine USS Honolulu 280 miles from the North Pole. Three polar bears wandered up to the vessel clearly wondering what the hell it was. They hung around for two hours before carrying on with their day. It must’ve been pretty awesome for the Honolulu’s crew to get such an up close look at the bears. Of course if they hadn’t been in their submarine it could’ve been an absolutely terrifying ordeal. Polar bears are huge, even by bear standards, normally weighing at least one thousand pounds. They don’t mean humans any harm, they’re far more interested in seals which make up the majority of their diet. As if this particular polar bear surrounded by wild dogs didn’t have enough to deal with it also has to face the harsh reality that its habitat is rapidly melting away. The bears have also been hunted en mass for decades though regulations and controls have led to rebounding populations in recent years. As scary as polar bears are, shouldn’t they be more scared of us at this point? Moose A rare moose who appeared as though he had just wandered out of the arctic ice appeared in the town of Eda in western Sweden as reported by the Washington Post. A man saw the creature and shot video, making the footage, which quickly went viral, some of the only ever recorded of a white moose. Out of the 400,000 or so moose that occupy Sweden, only around 100 are thought to be white, though none of them realize it. Some attained this fur color as a result of albinism, but most simply have a recessive gene that produces mostly white fur. Of course moose aren’t very scary in nature. But their size has caused some terrible, and often fatal collisions with vehicles, prompting signs like this one to be put up on roads where moose are known to wander around. Gyrfalcons (jur-falcon) Arctic hares have a tough time surviving thanks to two of their primary predators. On the ground they have to deal with the aforementioned Arctic Fox, who even at a young age can catch an adult hare with relative ease. They also have to worry about what’s going on above them because a gyrfalcon could swoop in out of nowhere. After it plucks the unlucky creature off the ground it glides to it's nest on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut where it uses the remains of the rabbit to build its nests. Out of all falcons the gyrfalcon is the biggest. On average they have a wingspan of 51 inches, though females are stockier than males. As you can imagine they don’t have very many natural predators. The golden eagle will occasionally try to mess with them, but even in this face off the gyrfalcon is a formidable opponent. Lion’s Mane Jellyfish Jellyfish are pretty weird, scary creatures. Stepping on one accidentally can produce an incredibly painful sting and ruin a day at the beach. It’s a good thing the lion’s mane jellyfish only lives in cold waters, because it's the largest known species of jellyfish, and uses stinging tentacles to pull in and eat or attempt to eat prey like fish, smaller jellyfish or human body parts. One washed up on the Massachusetts Bay in 1870 that was seven and a half feet long and had tentacles that measured over 121 feet. Their range extends from the Arctic to the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Thanks for joining us everyone we hope you’ve enjoyed the video. Keep the comments coming we love to hear from you guys and look out for our newest video coming tomorrow. But before you leave stick around for our last scary arctic creature. Ermine When people wanted to introduce the ermine to New Zealand to control rabbits there was a lot of skepticism. Scientists knew the ermine, or the stoat, to be one of the most troublesome, invasive species of animals on the planet. The warnings were ignored and stoats began to be moved to New Zealand in the 1880’s. Within six years a noticeable decline in bird populations had occurred. The culprit was of course the new residents, ermine. They live on Siberian and Canadian Arctic Islands as well as places further down south. Irish mythology cast the stoat in a very bad light. They were viewed as thieving animals whose saliva was rumored to be able to effectively poison a fully grown human being.