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This is the moment a starving half-tonne polar bear resorts to licking oil and grease from the underside of bus in a desperate attempt to find a meal in Hudson Bay, Canada.

The enormous mother bear was driven to the last-ditch act after going hungry for a five months due to a lack of food.

Polar bears normally feed on seals caught on huge sections of sea ice - but when the ice melts in the summer months they are forced back to land where food is scarce.

So hungry was the mother that she and her cub were forced to feast on the lubricants on the undercarriage and wheels of a tourist sightseeing bus.

Thankfully the tour company have realised the bizarre feeding habits of the bears and opted to use 'edible' oils that do not harm them.