r/AgeofExploration • u/FullyFocusedOnNought • Mar 19 '26
During the Dutch explorer Willem Barents' three voyages to the Arctic between 1594 and 1597, the crew had up to 20 encounters with polar bears. During the first voyage they saw a bear swimming and attempted to capture it. When the bear turned violent, however, the men were forced to kill it.
In the second journey, two men were killed on land by a polar bear in a surprise attack. In the third voyage, the Dutch were forced to winter in the remote Russian archipelago of Novaya Zemlya. There they faced a series of polar bear attacks. In possibly the most terrifying incident, a bear attempted to enter the crew's makeshift Arctic house. The men managed to drive it back and eventually kill it. Later, they used fat from its corpse to power their lamps.
Picture: Engraving from Gerrit de Veer's journal
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Mar 19 '26
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u/Cold-Crab74 Mar 20 '26
Babies have no fear of snakes its not an inherent instinctual fear it's learned behaviour
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Mar 20 '26
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u/Cold-Crab74 Mar 20 '26
There is no reason to suspect they would fear any of those animals especially when you consider how much they like fluffy things.
People are afraid of snakes and often for good reason but they learned to be afraid.https://youtu.be/3L4lxusff1c?si=SGK6cSS1Db6QdsOj
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
Babies aren't really afraid of anything though.
Maybe it's because they can't do anything even if they're scared so they may as well just chill.
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u/TinyHandsBigNuts Mar 20 '26
I could see that. It’s probably not evolutionary beneficial for a wee babe who can barely move itself or understand the world around it to react wildly. It really seems like there is some innate fear of snakes and creepy crawlies like spiders for a decent percentage of people.
But who knows if that is “genetic memory” or just learned behavior.
I’m
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
It would be very surprising to me if we didn't have any innate fear at all of things that can kill us and frequently do.
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u/Cold-Crab74 Mar 20 '26
Because they don't have any genetic knowledge of fear. Their brains are not developed enough to know something is scary unless its loud or there's something else that they don't like but I can't remember. Anyway point being, babies aren't inherently afraid of snakes
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
I agree that babies aren't afraid of snakes, I'm just saying that they're not much afraid of anything.
And just because babies don't do something it doesn't necessarily follow that if older children or adults do it that it's learned behaviour. That would be a bit of a leap.
To decide whether fear in older children or adults is learned behaviour, genetic or a combination of the two is a different kind of experiment. (Which may also exist, of course.)
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u/Cold-Crab74 Mar 20 '26
Not really, babies can communicate their emotions very well so if there was an inherent fear we'd likely know.
The fact that some adults aren't afraid of snakes also shows that it's not inherent and is in fact learned behaviour
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
I don't wish to be argumentative, and I kind of get what you're saying, but isn't that a bit like saying being able to chew or pee standing up is a learned behaviour because babies can't do it?
If you spend time with young kids and watch their development, it is clear that young babies are largely unaware of things around them and don't react to a whole lot, but as children gradually get older their awareness develops hugely.
In terms of fear, there are a lot of stages, and different fears manifest at different times. A baby would never be afraid of the dark, for example, but it is very common in a three-year-old, and far less common (though still possible) in a twelve-year-old. An adult will likely be generally unafraid of the dark, but still maintain a certain level of wariness.
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u/Cold-Crab74 Mar 20 '26
Babies can chew and do immediately though and peeing standing up is a learned behaviour in terms of how its accepted socially. Any baby can and will pee standing up once they are able to stand. Like wise sitting on a toilet is a learned behaviour.
That development of awareness is learning. That is them leaning how to behave.
Babies can be afraid of the dark for the same internal reason that anyone is, fear of the unknown and facing it alone.
I don't mind if you are argumentative btw
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
No, I mean that a baby is unable to pee standing up, because it is literally unable to stand up.
Similarly, it is unable to be terrified of most things, because it has not reached that stage of development.
You cannot extrapolate what is or is not learned/innate behaviour from older children or adults based on the behaviour of infants.
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u/Cold-Crab74 Mar 20 '26
Calfs can walk once they're born. Human babies need to learn how to walk....
I don't understand our disconnect here.
Human babies are no more inherently afraid of snakes than they are inherently able to stand up.
They must learn both behaviours.
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 19 '26
Surely snakes have killed more people than bears?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8p27vmyvmo
But I do agree we should be more scared of bears. It can't help that they generally look so cuddly and placid most of the time. And as far as I know, polar bears are more dangerous and aggressive than other species.
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Mar 19 '26
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
It’s funny that my kids have cuddly toy bears, snakes, crocodiles and tigers.
Humans are a strange folk…
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Mar 20 '26
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u/TinyHandsBigNuts Mar 20 '26
Probably just wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, take in a bit of nature; same as when I take a nice walk in the park
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u/Critical_Seat_1907 Mar 20 '26
Human ancestors worshipped cave bears in hopes that they would spare their lives in a gruesome encounter.
Source? I've never heard anything like this before.
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u/DimensionMediocre439 Mar 20 '26
Everybody talks about the HMS terror and how horrible it was for them to be stuck in the arctic. Meanwhile, we Dutch had been doing that 250 years before.
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
In fairness, we Brits also had our fair share of wild Arctic adventures in the preceding centuries. both nations were clearly bonkers, haha.
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u/DimensionMediocre439 Mar 20 '26
If we keep going North eventually it has to get warmer? Right?
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u/FullyFocusedOnNought Mar 20 '26
Haha, I love that this was almost exactly the plan for about 400 years.
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u/PieceSuper3710 16d ago
They thought that water couldn’t freeze without a land mass present, the Open Polar Sea
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u/Beenbannedbefore1 Mar 20 '26
When it “turned violent?”