Polar Bear scare for paddling kids

Invisible screen ... glass shield looks bear-ly there

CHILDREN at an animal sanctuary are getting a real polar SCARE coming face-to-face with one of the world's biggest predators.

To onlookers it looks as though the enormous beasts are looming over unsuspecting kids paddling nearby.

But the incredible scenes are a trick of an eye, as a ten-inch thick sheet of Plexiglass separates them.

Both children and bears are actually very safely taking part in a new scheme by the owners of Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat, Canada.

She's behind you ... bears swim after young boy

They have created the amazing set-up to try and promote awareness about the incredible animals.

Former director at the centre and keen photographer Gerry Robichaud, 59, took these snaps of the moment bear meets man in the safety of the tank.

He said: "You do get some very surprised reactions from visitors when they first see the bears and the children in the pool.

"When you're in the water and up by the glass next to these animals it barely seems like there is anything protecting you, when in fact there's a ten-inch thick barrier.

"We get various reactions from the children, some of them can't wait to get in the pool and others really don't want to. It's the adults you have to watch out for, some of them jump in still with all their clothes on.

Bear necessity ... thick glass separating man and beast can be seen from this angle

"The two bears in the pictures are actually females, Aurora and Nikita, both who we took in as rescue animals.

"They came to us as cubs after a tribe told us about them because their mother had been shot by a hunter near Winisk, near the Hudson Bay in the far north."

The sanctuary only takes in rescued bears from the wild and through letting visitors get so close they hope to help understanding and reduce hunting.

Gerry added the aim was to give the bears as much stimulation as possible in their 100m by 200m enclosure.

He said: "I have been in the water myself when the public have not been here and actually realised one of the bears was stalking me, she was hiding and keeping very low in the water.

"It was quite an odd feeling. I have lived in the far north with the people up there myself and documented their lives - it's a different world up there."