The polar bear also hunts by stalking seals resting on the ice: Upon spotting a seal, it walks to within 91m, and then crouches. If the seal does not notice, the bear creeps to within 9.1 to 12 m of the seal and then suddenly rushes forth to attack.

A third hunting method is to raid the birth lairs that female seals create in the snow.

A widespread legend tells that polar bears cover their black noses with their paws when hunting. There is no record of an eyewitness account of the behavior in recent decades.

Dr. Ian Stirling and several assistants used telescopes to watch undisturbed polar bears hunting seals in the Canadian High Arctic, 24 hours a day when conditions permitted, in both spring and summer conditions, for several weeks each year for several years. They documented the details of many hundreds of hunts. No bear was ever seen putting a paw over its nose while stalking a seal. Nor, have other polar bear biologists, ever observed this behavior.