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There are few truly wild places left...
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00:03:56,278 --> 00:03:59,282
...and none so majestic as this.
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In winter, endless darkness is brightened...
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00:04:05,162 --> 00:04:08,382
...by the frisky dance of the northern lights.
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00:04:09,750 --> 00:04:12,970
And 30 below is the norm.
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It's lovely weather for polar bear families.
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One hundred and fifty thousand years ago...
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...some brown bears moved north
and gradually adapted.
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Over time, their fur turned white...
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...for camouflage.
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Their snouts got tonger...
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...and their noses keener...
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...to detect even the slightest whiff of dinner.
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This is a cold, stark world...
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...but to polar bear mothers and cubs...
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...it's paradise.
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Because they're built for the Arctic...
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...polar bears cannot thrive anywhere else.
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They're at home here and only here.
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Polar bears have always hunted...
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...from floating platforms of sea ice.
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Feasting on rich seal meat...
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00:06:51,786 --> 00:06:55,962
...has made these the largest bears
in the world.
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But now the Arctic is warming...
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00:07:00,754 --> 00:07:03,724
...and the sea ice is melting away...
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00:07:03,882 --> 00:07:07,386
...making it harder than ever to catch seals.
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This warming...
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...has left the polar bears on thin ice.
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00:07:20,857 --> 00:07:24,077
The less ice there is
to reflect the sun's rays...
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00:07:24,235 --> 00:07:26,954
...the faster the ocean warms.
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00:07:27,656 --> 00:07:32,708
That's why the Arctic is warming
twice as fast as any other region.
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In 1980...
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...the summer sea ice
covered 25 percent more ocean...
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...than it does now.
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If the current trend continues...
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00:07:51,721 --> 00:07:56,227
...the Arctic Ocean could be free of sea ice
each summer...
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...by the year 2050.
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00:08:06,403 --> 00:08:11,330
Even if we can't stop this loss,
we can slow it down.
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00:08:13,326 --> 00:08:17,957
Just as we release the greenhouse gases
that are warming the region...
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...we can help reduce them.
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00:08:27,799 --> 00:08:30,552
Ocean currents flow from the Arctic...
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...and cool the entire planet.
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So we're all closely connected
to the top of the world.
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Most Arctic glaciers are melting
faster than ever before.
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Ironically, the faster these glaciers melt...
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00:09:07,881 --> 00:09:11,055
...the more majestic their waterfalls.
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The distance between ice packs is growing.
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Nowadays, a polar bear in search of sea ice
often has further to go.
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00:10:02,018 --> 00:10:05,272
It can be a swim to nowhere.
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00:11:00,577 --> 00:11:03,421
When they can't find seals to eat...
51
00:11:03,580 --> 00:11:06,925
...mothers make do with meager scraps.
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00:11:09,961 --> 00:11:14,967
One mother and her cub set out
on the longest swim ever tracked.
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00:11:18,386 --> 00:11:22,061
The mother swam continuously
for nine days...
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...covering 430 miles.
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00:11:26,895 --> 00:11:29,990
But her cub did not survive.
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00:11:39,949 --> 00:11:42,247
Some cubs do survive...
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...especially if the mother
is a clever scavenger.
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00:12:10,813 --> 00:12:12,030
Like polar bears...
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00:12:12,190 --> 00:12:16,115
...birds are struggling as the Arctic warms.
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00:12:28,206 --> 00:12:32,507
Arctic birds time their lives to the seasons.
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So do the Inuit people...
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...like Simon Qamanirq.
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Polar bears surprise us in camp.
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Especially in the lean summer months.
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My father could read the clouds.
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He knew when the storm was coming.
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00:13:03,116 --> 00:13:06,336
But now the ancient weather patterns
have changed.
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00:13:08,997 --> 00:13:12,592
Our grandfathers fed their families well.
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00:13:14,877 --> 00:13:19,223
My family has always depended
on snow and ice.
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00:13:21,134 --> 00:13:25,935
Nowadays when the ice melts,
we can adjust...
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00:13:26,973 --> 00:13:30,068
...but the polar bears are not so lucky.
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00:13:54,542 --> 00:13:57,591
The ice is forming later in the year...
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...so it's thinner.
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Sometimes we fall through.
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00:14:05,178 --> 00:14:10,105
My friend Adam Ravetch
has been coming up here for 20 years...
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00:14:10,266 --> 00:14:12,735
...to photograph the animals.
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00:14:17,482 --> 00:14:21,407
I love it when a mom dances
with her 2-year-old cub...
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00:14:21,569 --> 00:14:23,321
...cheek to cheek.
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Polar bears are great swimmers...
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...even though they only use...
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...their gigantic front paws.
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These dedicated mothers
put over two years...
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...into raising their young.
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Walrus moms spend even longer.
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Walrus love clams.
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They dive down from rafts of ice...
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...which drift along
and carry them to fresh supplies...
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...of their favorite treat.
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00:15:46,487 --> 00:15:48,080
As sea ice melts...
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00:15:48,239 --> 00:15:50,287
...walrus are stuck on land...
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00:15:50,450 --> 00:15:54,580
...so mothers must swim farther
to find food for their young.
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Mothers teach their young survival skills...
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...such as scaring off intruders.
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00:16:50,510 --> 00:16:53,935
One morn sent me a very clear message:
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"Get lost."
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00:17:06,108 --> 00:17:10,079
Summer in the Arctic
now lasts about a month longer.
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00:17:15,493 --> 00:17:17,712
Walrus and hungry bears...
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...wait and wait for the sea to freeze over.
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00:17:25,086 --> 00:17:27,054
The males get restless...
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00:17:27,213 --> 00:17:28,510
...and start sparring.
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00:17:28,673 --> 00:17:31,222
They're testing each other's skills.
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It's fun.
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00:17:59,829 --> 00:18:00,751
When it's not...
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00:18:00,913 --> 00:18:05,840
...mating season, these fierce rivals
are content to live and let live.
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00:18:09,297 --> 00:18:10,264
The bears need...
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00:18:10,423 --> 00:18:14,803
...to get back out to their hunting grounds
now that the sea ice is...
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00:18:14,969 --> 00:18:16,391
...finally freezing over.
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00:18:27,523 --> 00:18:31,494
This water is literally as cold as ice.
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00:18:31,652 --> 00:18:34,030
The salt keeps it from freezing.
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00:18:46,042 --> 00:18:48,921
These sea anemones look healthy.
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00:18:49,086 --> 00:18:52,681
But the greenhouse gases
we release thousands of miles...
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00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:56,845
...away have made the Arctic Ocean
more acidic.
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00:19:04,226 --> 00:19:07,480
Down here, there's only one exit...
114
00:19:07,647 --> 00:19:11,117
...and it's pretty scary
thinking you could be trapped.
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00:19:17,365 --> 00:19:20,869
Diving beneath the ice takes courage.
116
00:19:25,665 --> 00:19:29,920
But for the people who devote their lives
to studying the Arctic...
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00:19:30,086 --> 00:19:33,056
...taking risks is part of the job.
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00:19:37,176 --> 00:19:39,270
Each spring in Alaska...
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...large herds of caribou set out
on a long journey.
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00:19:45,726 --> 00:19:50,277
No one has ever tracked
the entire migration on foot...
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00:19:50,439 --> 00:19:52,157
...until now.
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00:19:56,487 --> 00:19:58,615
Leanne Allison, a filmmaker...
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00:19:58,781 --> 00:20:01,500
...and Karsten Heuer, a biologist...
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00:20:01,659 --> 00:20:05,163
...plan to live with the herd for five months.
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00:20:06,789 --> 00:20:10,544
We're gonna do this trip
to see what the caribou mothers go through...
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00:20:10,710 --> 00:20:15,090
...and to see this migration
from their perspective.
127
00:20:15,256 --> 00:20:17,554
And it's gonna be our honeymoon as well.
128
00:20:17,717 --> 00:20:18,843
Honeymoon?
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00:20:23,180 --> 00:20:26,150
These newlyweds will follow the caribou...
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00:20:26,308 --> 00:20:29,437
...all the way to their birthing grounds.
131
00:20:41,407 --> 00:20:44,456
These caribou mothers
are on a tight schedule.
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00:20:45,453 --> 00:20:48,627
Yeah, that's gotta be caribou paths.
Look at that drainage coming in.
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00:20:48,789 --> 00:20:49,961
Yeah, just over there...
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00:20:50,124 --> 00:20:53,219
With the warm spring,
the snowpack’s melted early.
135
00:20:53,961 --> 00:20:56,009
And so the rivers are flooding...
136
00:20:57,381 --> 00:21:00,726
...and this is gonna be a problem
for the caribou to get across.
137
00:21:01,177 --> 00:21:04,181
This is climate change
slowing down the herd.
138
00:21:12,271 --> 00:21:15,070
This water is so cold it can stop your heart.
139
00:21:17,610 --> 00:21:18,953
We've gotta get across fast.
140
00:21:24,658 --> 00:21:27,002
The caribou moms
are traveling hundreds of miles...
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00:21:27,161 --> 00:21:29,414
...to get to the coastal plain of Alaska...
142
00:21:29,580 --> 00:21:33,130
...which is the safest place to give birth.
143
00:21:34,043 --> 00:21:36,592
This year the migration
is about three weeks late...
144
00:21:36,754 --> 00:21:40,725
...so some of the caribou mothers
have to give birth along the way.
145
00:22:13,874 --> 00:22:15,751
Some of these calves are just a week...
146
00:22:15,918 --> 00:22:19,764
...or two old, and they're easy pickings
for bears and wolves.
147
00:22:19,922 --> 00:22:24,052
We're seeing a lot of calves get separated
from their mothers.
148
00:22:25,469 --> 00:22:27,847
A lot of them don't survive.
149
00:22:37,273 --> 00:22:39,947
The caribou finally reach their goal.
150
00:22:40,109 --> 00:22:45,115
This is the place where the calves
have their best chance to survive.
151
00:22:45,281 --> 00:22:49,787
But just a few days after they give birth,
the botflies hatch.
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00:22:49,952 --> 00:22:53,297
These bugs are potentially deadly
to these caribou.
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00:22:53,455 --> 00:22:55,958
They can burrow up their noses,
lay their eggs there...
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00:22:56,125 --> 00:22:58,173
...and they can set off stampedes.
155
00:22:58,460 --> 00:23:01,134
It's why caribou head for the high country:
to get away.
156
00:23:42,838 --> 00:23:48,186
Caribou mothers
are having a tough time as the Arctic warms.
157
00:23:48,552 --> 00:23:52,807
But polar bear mothers face
an even greater struggle.
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00:23:55,559 --> 00:23:57,607
To learn more about polar bears...
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00:23:57,770 --> 00:24:02,321
...a team of naturalists and filmmakers
gathered on Svalbard island...
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00:24:02,483 --> 00:24:04,110
...in Norway.
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00:24:05,361 --> 00:24:10,583
They signed on with a seasoned captain
and headed north.
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My name is Bjorne Kvernmo...
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...and I'm captain of this ship.
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There are over
20,000 polar bears in the world...
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00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,830
...and most of them are camera-shy.
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00:24:54,910 --> 00:24:58,289
To photograph these reluctant film stars...
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00:24:58,455 --> 00:25:01,834
...John Downer uses
clever robotic cameras...
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...camouflaged in white.
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00:25:13,012 --> 00:25:16,812
The bears were curious
about the remote cameras.
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00:25:26,025 --> 00:25:30,326
One bear was especially helpful.
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00:25:33,699 --> 00:25:38,079
It's hard to keep up
when you're only 3 months old.
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They all wanted to know
what made the cameras tick.
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Next year we're coming back
with stronger cases.
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00:26:14,406 --> 00:26:17,626
Bears nearly always avoid people...
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00:26:17,785 --> 00:26:21,255
...which made filming them
next to impossible.
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00:26:31,882 --> 00:26:35,011
Then the team got lucky.
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00:26:36,762 --> 00:26:41,017
They found a mom with two cubs,
about 7 months old.
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For five days, she never left their boat.
179
00:26:48,482 --> 00:26:51,986
Because the sun never sets in the summer...
180
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...bedtime is anytime.
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00:27:51,545 --> 00:27:56,893
Before long,
we saw what a tough job this mother faces...
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00:27:58,177 --> 00:28:02,182
...protecting her babies
from male polar bears.
183
00:28:07,311 --> 00:28:10,360
Hungry males prefer seals...
184
00:28:10,522 --> 00:28:15,494
...but in a pinch, they have always
gone after defenseless cubs.
185
00:28:18,697 --> 00:28:24,045
Even a half-ton male can be sneaky
when he's on the prowl.
186
00:28:28,874 --> 00:28:32,094
The mother seemed to pick up
the scent of a male.
187
00:28:32,252 --> 00:28:34,550
But we couldn't see him.
188
00:28:34,713 --> 00:28:38,263
We didn't know why she was agitated.
189
00:28:53,273 --> 00:28:56,527
We finally spotted a male quite a ways off...
190
00:28:57,069 --> 00:29:00,915
...zeroing in on the mother and her cubs.
191
00:29:07,996 --> 00:29:13,253
Now that seals are so hard to catch,
starving males...
192
00:29:13,418 --> 00:29:17,264
...might be targeting cubs more often.
193
00:29:20,509 --> 00:29:24,855
Before he got close, the male lost the scent.
194
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:28,062
But next time...
195
00:29:28,225 --> 00:29:30,353
...things could be much different.
196
00:29:36,275 --> 00:29:41,247
The male cub followed
the mother everywhere, step-for-step.
197
00:29:42,948 --> 00:29:46,418
But the female was more inquisitive.
198
00:30:03,593 --> 00:30:05,595
When mothers go hungry...
199
00:30:05,762 --> 00:30:09,642
...they're too lean to nurse
more than one cub...
200
00:30:10,017 --> 00:30:13,863
...but this mother had enough milk
to nurse two.
201
00:30:20,319 --> 00:30:22,742
She was always on alert.
202
00:30:23,071 --> 00:30:25,415
If she caught the scent of a male...
203
00:30:25,574 --> 00:30:28,794
...she'd hustle the cubs off to safety.
204
00:30:31,788 --> 00:30:36,419
This mother fended off four attacks
in five days.
205
00:30:41,173 --> 00:30:44,143
The moms have one thing going for them:
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00:30:44,301 --> 00:30:48,056
They're willing to die to protect their cubs.
207
00:31:59,084 --> 00:32:02,930
Playful cubs can really work up an appetite.
208
00:32:11,179 --> 00:32:16,436
Tasty seals may hide,
but hungry moms can sniff them out.
209
00:32:23,650 --> 00:32:26,654
When you want to grab a bite to eat up here...
210
00:32:26,820 --> 00:32:29,448
...timing is everything.
211
00:32:30,282 --> 00:32:32,455
Peek-a-boo.
212
00:32:52,679 --> 00:32:56,183
The cubs finish everything on their plate...
213
00:32:57,559 --> 00:33:02,611
...but the scent of fresh seal meat
attracts attention.
214
00:33:07,819 --> 00:33:09,412
Trouble always seems to...
215
00:33:09,613 --> 00:33:12,913
...come along when you least expect it.
216
00:33:49,027 --> 00:33:52,952
The mother leads her cubs away, downwind.
217
00:33:53,865 --> 00:33:57,836
But the male picks up
the family's scent again.
218
00:34:01,373 --> 00:34:05,628
We watch helplessly as the male sneaks up.
219
00:34:08,964 --> 00:34:12,935
The mother senses danger, but from where?
220
00:34:48,628 --> 00:34:51,973
The male outweighs the mother
two-to-one...
221
00:34:54,718 --> 00:34:58,348
...but all that weight
doesn't slow him down one bit.
222
00:35:12,652 --> 00:35:18,000
Once the huge male locks in on his target,
he never lets up.
223
00:35:37,761 --> 00:35:41,311
The male keeps gaining on the family.
224
00:35:44,934 --> 00:35:48,609
Then the mother turns to face him...
225
00:35:50,357 --> 00:35:55,705
...slowing him down just long enough
for her frightened cubs to escape.
226
00:36:02,327 --> 00:36:07,675
At the moment of truth,
the mother sent a very clear message:
227
00:36:10,126 --> 00:36:13,926
"You can get to my cubs if you want...
228
00:36:14,089 --> 00:36:17,343
...but you'll have to kill me first."
229
00:36:43,618 --> 00:36:48,966
This brave mother was
willing to do anything to protect her cubs.
230
00:36:51,334 --> 00:36:56,465
But she's powerless to save the habitat
they need to survive.
231
00:37:07,976 --> 00:37:11,776
There are few truly wild places left...
232
00:37:12,230 --> 00:37:15,655
...and none so majestic as this.
233
00:37:19,487 --> 00:37:24,664
But the Arctic is warming faster
than it has for thousands of years...
234
00:37:24,826 --> 00:37:28,626
...and losing its dazzling crown of ice.
235
00:37:34,627 --> 00:37:38,973
Arctic animals need ice to survive.
236
00:37:41,134 --> 00:37:44,980
They live in a delicate balance
with the natural world...
237
00:37:45,430 --> 00:37:48,149
...mothers most of all.
238
00:37:53,438 --> 00:37:57,318
How could they live in a world without ice?
239
00:38:20,423 --> 00:38:24,849
The mothers here nurture their young
so lovingly.
240
00:38:26,596 --> 00:38:28,940
Perhaps they can inspire us...
241
00:38:29,098 --> 00:38:32,898
...to protect their home with that same care.
242
00:38:34,854 --> 00:38:39,360
Perhaps we can help keep the Arctic white.
243
00:39:00,463 --> 00:39:05,094
The Arctic is one of the hardest places
on Earth to survive...
244
00:39:05,260 --> 00:39:09,731
...but to a polar bear, it's paradise.
245
00:39:09,889 --> 00:39:14,690
Cubs play and resilient mothers thrive.
246
00:39:14,894 --> 00:39:18,990
It's the only home they'll ever have.20669
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