Polar bears are the largest land carnivores on Earth. Ten feet long from nose to tail, weighing up to 1,300 pounds, they have cobra-esque reflexes, ten scythes for claws, and can sprint on ice nearly as fast as Usain Bolt on a springy track. In their dark, snowy realm, they are the lords of Arctic wildlife.

Yet they aren't much of a match for an Inova AHV-IV Commander—a 90,000-pound, 500-horsepower tracked "thumper truck" that may be crawling over their favorite denning habitat in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as early as December.

(Read more about the Arctic refuge.)

If the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approves a permit application submitted by SAExploration last July, two dozen of the massive,