Polar bears destroy BBC documentary cameras

BBC documentary cameras are no match, it turns out, for the destructive curiosity of your average polar bear. Producers of the BBC show "Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice" thought they could outwit their documentary subjects on the Arctic islands of Svalbard by concealing weather-resistant high-tech cameras inside casings that mimicked the look of ice floes and other snow formations. The idea, apparently, was to capture the unguarded rounds of polar bear life in the species' natural habitat, in the general style of the successful Animal Planet franchise "Meerkat Manor."

[Photos: More polar bear images]

But the inquisitive bears weren't taken in by the ruse. The cameras were designed to survive in temperatures as low as -40 degree Celsius, but once they came in the sights--and more important, the grip--of wandering polar bears, they were soon clawed, gnawed and crushed into state of total dysfunction. The heroic cameras in some instances caught the moment of their own demise.

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You can watch the bear-camera smackdown after the jump. (Hat tip: Gizmodo.)

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