Last spring I had a similar experience. Ok, Ok, it wasn't a polar bear and it wasn't exactly in the line of duty, but it was a bear and involved puckering so I'm gonna tell my story.
I was cruising timber on the Washington coast last March in some of the thickest brush I've ever seen when I started hearing something bawling/squalling every minute or so. Sounded like a bear cub so I clawed my way over there to see what was going on. Pretty soon I popped out into a small area where all the brush was mashed down around a giant old cedar stump and I could see a tunnel leading underneath. The bear cubs were in there still squalling.
I stood there and had a little debate with myself. I wanted to crawl in there and see the cubs but didn't really want to meet ma if she was home. Finally I convinced myself that the cubs wouldn't be making all that racket if the sow was in there with 'em so I started to crawl in. I was about waist deep and wedged in pretty tight in total darkness when a thought occured to me. You see, my stupidity is sometimes punctuated by flashes of brilliance. Anyway, it occured to me that if I was wrong and the sow was in there it could get ugly. So I backed out. Then I was standing about 6 feet from the den entrance wondering what to do next when that big ol' sow popped out of the den like a cork and shot past me doing 60 miles/hour. She practically brushed up against my leg and just kept on going!
Several minutes later, after my body allowed my heart to start beating again, I realized it was now safe to crawl into the den. So I ran back to the truck, grabbed my camera, crawled in and took a few pictures of the cubs.
[ 07 April 2001: Message edited by: Buckshot ]