Polar bear raids BBC film crew wine supply

A polar bear has helped itself to the precious wine supply of a BBC film crew recording for a David Attenborough nature programme in the Arctic Circle.

Polar bears are not known for being particularly discriminate in their choice of wine (Photo: Wiki)

The bibulous bear broke into the cabin of a three-person crew filming for the new BBC series of The Hunt, apparently drank freely of a box of red wine the crew had been keeping as a treat.

The 7ft beast made repeated sallies on the wooden cabin, rampaging through the crew’s possession and devouring its entire food supply save for a jar of Marmite, the Daily Mail reported.

The three-person crew stationed in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard returned to the cabin after filming one day to find a number of food items rifled through and its box of red wine tampered with.

The bear then returned to the hut while the crew was inside but the crew managed to scare it away by banging on the walls and screaming.

Undeterred, the bear then came back for more while the crew were out filming guillemots. On returning, one of the crew members, Brit Sophie Lanfear, found the animal asleep on the floor in front of the cabin door with red wine across its face.

“We could see the bear going into the cabin while we were up on the cliffs filming but we’d waited weeks for this event and there was nothing we could do,” she told the Daily Mail.

“When we got back we set off flares and were shouting and screaming to frighten him off but he was very blasé. It became obvious he wasn’t scared.”

The crew finally managed to scare off the bear by setting off flares.