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: Polar Bear Training: Hunting Instinct
Mar 27, 2006

Heel boy, heel!

That there is a humpback whale. They seem to be pretty common around Antarctica. In about any video covering Antarctica they will often have some video footage of humpbacks surfacing. Undoubtedly they are feeding on the numerous krill there. It has a similar looking mouth and head to the blue whale which we’ve covered, but it is about half as long growing 40 to 50 feet. An identifying characteristic of the humpback whale is the knobs on the nose and fins, these are actually hair follicles, and it’s incredibly long front fins that are about a third the length of their body. They often breach the water and that’s probably a reason they are a favorite among whale watchers.

As a kid in Maine I remember a humpback whale settling in a little fishing cove. It was cool to see him come up and check out all the little fishing boats, whales always seem real curious. He hung out there for a couple weeks and then moved on.

Another thing in the comic is the way Wally struck the ice. Polar bears often break through ice when hunting, they rear up on their hind legs and then drive their front two paws through the ice. Feeding on whales is also true of polar bears, it’s hard to believe but they do hunt beluga whales. Sometimes belugas will get stranded to an air hole in the ice for a period of time. During this time they have to resurface at that only hole to breathe, that is where the polar bear will attack them at each surfacing, until it wears one down enough to kill it and drag it up out of the water onto the ice. You don’t have to worry about the bear not finishing the meal and wasting whale, there is sure to be another bear to show up and finish the job along with some arctic foxes.

On the TV

Animal Planet has started regularly playing a couple specials right now you might want to check out. One is called “Massive Nature” and is about animals seeing to their survival in massive numbers. It covers several species but one part features adelie penguins, and the grown chicks’ first trip to the open ocean as well as the leopard seals that prey on them at that time. The other show is “Wild Kingdom: Polar Bear Alcatraz” that follows some bears off the coast of Russia and their struggle in the harsh environment. I haven’t seen that one yet but I set it to record on the DVR.

Wallpaper

These are just the first in several new wallpapers. I figured we needed a couple basic Wally & Osbourne ones, these are good if you like a clean desktop or have a lot of icons on your desktop. Tomorrow I think I’ll have some from the cowboy episodes to choose from.

27 Comments

  1. Alexander says:

    Now that’s what I call an instnct, nicely drawn good one Tyler πŸ˜‰

  2. Mackenzie says:

    HOly!!…..Wally reminds me of my cat when ever i try to pet her

  3. Ross says:

    I might just laugh at the surprise on the whale’s face all day.
    “What the devil!?….”

  4. graham says:

    “You donÒ€ℒt have to worry about the bear not finishing the meal and wasting whale…”

    I guess they can always leave the leftovers in the fridge… It’s not like they’re going to go off!

  5. RW says:

    whoa! love Wallys face in the second frame.

    sweet, new wallpapers!

  6. Alex says:

    I think it’s “Heel boy, heel.”

    You’re not trying to cast some sort of +2 Spell of Healing, are you?

  7. Turk3y says:

    apparently, when angry – polar bears gain orange circles as opposed to the normal red eyes that distinguish genuine rage. I’m assuming these are “whale killer” eyes.

  8. Lee says:

    I just love the surprised expression on the whale’s face.

  9. Alexander says:

    Another thing is you could make a strip with arctic foxes, I’ve met normal red foxes and one or two times I’ve ran into an albino red fox, just like it but white. They’re quite loveable, but tricky, one time one of them was istting all nice, I went to pet it and the next thing you know when I turn around the other is trying to get into my car, I was carrying soem food to an orphanage nearby. Anyway foxes are smart, and I do mean smart, so think about a comic with them, I’m sure you’ll find some nice material πŸ˜‰

  10. Shenniko says:

    Woot, thats for the new wallpapers Tyler… your too good to us! πŸ™‚

  11. Ashley says:

    Thanks for the wallpapers, and great comic! πŸ˜‰

  12. Izzieluv says:

    I like the whales face,Wally in the Second frame, AND the wallpapers, thanx!

  13. tux says:

    Thanks for the wallpapers, got Osbourne instead of the snow sculptures πŸ™‚

  14. zoomcamera says:

    thats funny

  15. Lurker says:

    Dang, that’s a huge whale Wally hunted. Dunno if I want Wally that tough though, lol. I mean, hunting something about five times your size without usng anything but your hands is pretty impressive.

  16. Tyler Martin says:

    Glad you liked the wallpapers. More coming as promised. Also Tuesday’s comic will be up, just a bit later in the day. Apologies.

  17. Turk3y says:

    You know, I don’t think i’ve ever seen the color red in your entire collection of comics.

  18. Cybbe says:

    That’s because he goes with a color scheme.

  19. YoSis says:

    Whale ….it’s what’s for dinner!

  20. Sev says:

    Heh, Wally Gone Wild.

  21. Gabby says:

    just one word, WHOAH!

  22. woah watch out
    killer polar bear ON THE LOOSE!!! πŸ™‚ πŸ˜€ πŸ˜› πŸ˜‰

  23. Jee Won says:

    holly molly!!^^

  24. bobo says:

    i cant help but say it holly sweet whale caresses!

  25. Bill says:

    hey i thought wally had 42 teeth!

  26. Joey says:

    That must be Wallys incredible strength. hint hint!

  27. ukelele says:

    OH MY GOSH! i DON’T WANNA BE NEAR THAT BEAR WHEN HE’S HUNGRY! Nicely drawn, Tyler. πŸ˜‰

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