All language subtitles for My Journey with a Polar Bear 1080p

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: This is a
story of Svalbard...

a land of snow and ice

where a devoted mother

nurtures her young...

and struggles to find food

as her world melts away.

\h\h\h\hIt is a story of a
filmmaker who falls in love

and embarks on a quest

that will take him to
the ends of the earth.

Theirs is a story that endures

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin a land
disappearing before their eyes.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hASGEIR: My name
is Asgeir Helgestad.

\h\h\h\hI am a wildlife
cameraman from Norway.

\hA few years ago, I met a
beautiful polar bear mother

with two little cubs.

I gave her the name Frost.

\h\hNow I will tell you
what happened to Frost

over the four years since then.

\h\h\h\h\h\hIt is a story
about a gorgeous bear...

\h\h\h\h\h\hand about a world
melting away under her feet.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Frost’s
home is Svalbard,

a group of islands
in the Arctic Ocean

\h\h\hjust 650 miles
from the North Pole.

ASGEIR: For the last 20 years
this has been my second home.

Here, the amazing light, the
vast landscapes, the silence

\h\hand the feeling of being
completely alone with nature

\hgive me a peacefulness I
cannot find anywhere else.

\h\h\h\hI have spent a lot of
time filming ice in Svalbard.

Ice is essential for our planet,

\h\hbut I also think it
is extremely beautiful.

\h\h\hIt looks amazingly cold
here. And yes, it is cold...

But I am afraid it
is not cold enough.

\h\h\h\h\hI met Frost the
first time in April 2013.

My snowmobile overheated while
I was crossing a frozen fjord,

so I had to stop.

And that’s when I saw her.

Far away in the distance.

Her cubs were so small

\h\h\h\h\h\hthat they were
almost impossible to spot.

\h\hI did not film
them for very long,

because I thought it was best to
leave the little family alone.

\h\hBut in the afternoon, when I
drove back along the same route,

they were still there.

Now, Frost had caught a seal,

and she was so busy eating it

that she paid barely
any attention to me.

So, I could take a closer look.

But not too close.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hNARRATOR: It’s a
brief first encounter,

but its impression is lasting.

\h\h\h\hAsgeir will not
see Frost and her cubs

again for several weeks.

In this vast empty land,

\h\h\h\h\hit’s easy to lose
track of a wandering bear.

\h\h\h\h\hBut there are
other animals to film.

The reindeer here have shorter
\h\hlegs and are more compact.

The Arctic fox turns
snow white in winter

to blend with the landscape.

And there are some birds hardy
enough to remain year-round,

like the rock ptarmigan.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThese resilient
residents survive the winter

\h\h\h\hby storing a layer of
fat under their heavy coats.

\hLike the fox, the ptarmigan is
cloaked in white for the season.

\h\h\hIts thick plumage
even covers its feet...

\h\hmaking it easier
to walk in the snow.

[wind howling]

\h\h\hASGEIR: Nature comes
close out here in the cold.

At negative 22 and a full storm,

\h\h\h\hI really feel
how vulnerable I am.

\h\h\hI was so occupied
shooting other things,

\h\h\hbut still I could not
stop thinking about Frost.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThere was
something special about her,

\h\h\h\h\hso I went out
looking for her again.

\h\h\h\h\hIt was three weeks
since last time I’d seen her.

But after four days I was
lucky to find her tracks.

\h\h\h\hEven though I
didn’t know her well,

\h\h\h\h\h\hit was like
meeting an old friend.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hThe cubs had already
grown a surprising amount,

and this time I stayed with
the family for several days.

It became a magical experience.

I was so impressed with Frost.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hShe showed me
aspects of polar bear life

I had never seen before.

\h\h\h\hI wanted to give her two
daughters names expressing hope,

so they became Light and Lucky.

\h\h\h\h\hFrost was the most
amazing mom I had ever seen.

\h\h\h\hShe was such a
kind and caring mother.

\h\h\h\hAnd, unless she
was asleep or hunting,

\h\h\h\hshe spent all her time
playing with her two daughters.

♪ ♪

\h\hOne night the family
rested 200 yards above me

on a small slope.

Frost had been following
\hme for over six hours,

wondering who I was.

What I did not know was that

\h\h\hshe had decided to
take a closer look at me.

But Frost was not stupid.

Instead of going straight to me,

\h\hshe pretended to
play with her cubs...

\h\h\hAt the same time
she used her back legs

\h\h\hto push herself
over a little ridge.

\h\h\h\hFirst she stopped for a
moment until Lucky pushed her.

\h\hNow she had an excuse to
slide all the way down to me.

\h\h\hI will admit that it
scared the wits out of me.

\h\h\h\h\hAlthough Frost
could be dangerous to me,

she had made a deep impression.

\h\hIn the years I have
worked as a cameraman,

I have met many wild animals,

\hbut none has touched
me as strongly as her.

NARRATOR: In the old days,

Svalbard was a dangerous
\hplace for polar bears.

\hPolar bear hunting
was legal until 1973.

\h\h\h\h\hThe adult bears were
skinned to make coats and rugs.

\h\hTheir cubs were
often sold to zoos.

\h\hThe impact on the bear
population was devastating.

\hBetween 1870 and
1973, 30,000 bears

were killed on Svalbard
and the nearby islands.

Polar bears were
nearly wiped out.

\h\h\hBut they have
started to recover.

\h\h\h\h\hNow there are
nearly 300 on Svalbard.

Today, however, they face a
new threat even more dire...

♪ ♪

... climate change.

\h\hThis land of ice
and snow is melting.

The Arctic is warming almost
twice as fast as elsewhere.

\h\h\hFor polar bears like
Frost, it spells disaster.

[roar of avalanche]

♪ ♪

As temperatures rise,

\h\hthe frozen landscape of
Svalbard is disintegrating.

Old photographs of the glaciers
\hreveal the extent of change.

♪ ♪

\hSvalbard is losing its
protective armor of ice,

\h\h\h\h\hexposing bare
earth to the elements.

\hNow even the ground itself
is melting and falling apart.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hOn Svalbard, the
surface layer of earth and rock

stays frozen all year.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThis permafrost
extends hundreds of feet deep.

\h\hOnly the top four to
six feet melt in summer.

\hBut this active
layer is growing.

\h\hWarmer temperatures
are penetrating deeper.

No longer locked in ice,

\h\h\h\h\h\hthawing hillsides
become unstable and collapse.

\hSvalbard used to
be a polar desert,

too cold and dry for rain.

Now... it rains a lot.

[thunder]

\h\h\h\hSea ice typically
forms an insulating layer

\h\h\hbetween the warm
water and the cold air.

\hWithout that barrier of
ice, the air grows warmer

and collects water
vapor from the sea.

♪ ♪

That moisture falls, not as snow
but as rain -- even in winter.

\h\h\hASGEIR: Ring seals are an
important part of Frost’s diet,

but when the sea ice disappears,
the seals disappear too.

The most common way of hunting

\h\h\his to wait at the
seals’ breathing holes.

\h\h\h\hFrost could wait for
several hours at such a hole.

[splash]

But, even though
she was patient,

she did not always succeed.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hIt is dramatic to
see the loss of sea ice,

as it covers such a large area.

During my lifetime, the amount
\h\hof sea ice on the polar sea

\h\hhas been reduced
more than 40 percent.

\h\hMost likely, my
generation will see

all sea ice disappear from the
North Pole during the summer.

That’s terrifying!

\hWhen I went out
to look for Frost

in the late winter of 2014,

\h\h\hthere was hardly
any ice in her fjords.

\h\hIt was very difficult
for me to find her again.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: With no sign
of Frost in early 2014,

the seasons turn.

Starting in mid-April,

\h\hthe midnight sun shines
24 hours a day on Svalbard.

\hWhile the land remains
in the grip of winter...

\h... under the ice,
it’s already spring.

\h\hHere -- where the temperature
always hovers around freezing --

\hthe sunshine spurs a
massive bloom of algae

on the underside
of the ice sheet.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hTiny crustaceans
gather to feast on the algae.

These creatures --
called copepods --

are up to 70 percent fat.

They multiply by the trillions,

turning the sea into
a rich plankton soup.

Krill and small fish
feed on the copepods.

And they, in turn, provide
a feast for larger animals.

\h\hWithout the sea ice,
the algae will disappear,

\h\hand so will the
fat-rich plankton.

\h\h\h\hThe entire Arctic
food chain will collapse,

\h\h\h\hfrom the smallest
creatures in the ocean...

to the largest on Earth.

♪ ♪

Many species of whales
migrate here in summer

to enjoy the bounty of the most
\hproductive seas in the world.

But with no ice, and no algae,
\h\hthis spectacle will vanish.

\hIn summer, polar bears
here are forced to either

stay on land on Svalbard

\hor follow the retreating
ice north towards the pole,

\h\hbut the distance to reach
the ice is becoming too far.

\h\h\hAsgeir has no idea
which option Frost takes.

Summer 2014 comes and goes

with no sign of the
mother and her cubs.

♪ ♪

\h\hAfter four months
of non-stop daylight,

\h\hthe skies begin to dim
and the temperatures drop.

Fall arrives.

\h\h\h\h\hSoon darkness
settles over Svalbard.

\h\h\hThe only light
comes from the moon,

and the iridescent glow
of the northern lights.

Winter descends on
Svalbard once more,

bringing with it the ice.

\h\h\hIn early 2015, Asgeir
returns in search of Frost.

But it’s the cubs
who turn up first.

\h\hASGEIR: A colleague
of mine had seen Lucky

out on the ice in March.

\h\hShe was now two years old
and already a skilled hunter.

This was good news.

\h\h\hFrost had probably
left her quite recently,

\h\h\hbut Lucky had
made the transition

to an independent she-bear.

He told me that Lucky

\hwas the most playful
bear he had ever seen.

This didn’t surprise me.

I remembered how she had played

\h\h\hwith her mother
when she was little.

\h\hNARRATOR: But Lucky’s good
fortune is about to run out.

\h\hOn March 20, 2015, there is a
total solar eclipse on Svalbard,

\h\h\h\h\h\hattracting
thousands of tourists.

\h\h\h\hSome of them set up
camp outside Longyearbyen,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe largest
settlement on the island.

\h\h\h\h\hCamps are a natural
attraction for a curious bear

and need to be guarded.

\h\h\hLucky is fearless and
strolls into a tented camp.

[gunshot]

♪ ♪

Local scientists are
able to identify her,

as they’ve met her before.

Researchers on Svalbard capture

\h\h\hbetween 50 and
100 bears every year

\h\h\h\has they study the
impact of climate change.

\h\h\hIn order to weigh
and examine the bears,

they must sedate them,

sometimes also fitting
them with radio collars

to track their movements.

Not only Lucky, but
both Light and Frost

\h\hhave been through
this process before.

\h\h\h\hThey were tagged the
previous year, in April 2014.

When Asgeir hears of Lucky’s
\h\hdeath during the eclipse,

he gets more bad news.

Light is also dead.

She was found two days
after she was tagged...

\h\h\h\h\hperhaps a bad
reaction to the drugs.

\hASGEIR: Light and Lucky were
a symbol of the future for me.

Now they had both died.

\h\hThis made it even
more important for me

\h\h\hto find out what
had happened to Frost.

I had to find her.

NARRATOR: Summer arrives.

\h\h\h\h\h\hIf Frost is
alive, she is alone...

both her cubs now dead.

\h\h\h\hAsgeir hasn’t laid
eyes on her for two years.

\h\hASGEIR: I knew where to
look for her in the winter,

\h\h\hbut in the summer
she could be anywhere.

♪ ♪

\h\hNARRATOR: Summer brings a
whole new cast of characters

to Svalbard.

\hHuge flocks of birds
arrive from the south.

[bird chirping]

\h\h\h\h\h\hFor reindeer,
summer is calving season.

For the ptarmigan,
it’s time to change

\h\hfrom winter white
to a summer wardrobe.

When the ice disappears,

\h\hthe sea’s bounty
of fatty crustaceans

\h\h\his accessible to all
those with wings and fins.

Blue whales journey thousands
\h\h\hof miles for the feast.

\h\hFlocks of little auks have
timed their arrival perfectly.

\h\h\h\hTheir laughing calls
echo off the rocky hillsides.

[auks chattering]

Thick-billed murres are

much larger cousins
of the little auks.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThey’ve spent the
winter out on the open water

\h\h\hand now return to their
breeding colonies in summer.

[murres crying]

\hThe birds flock to
the foot of glaciers

\h\hthat dip their
toes in the ocean.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hSvalbard has
about 1,100 glaciers,

\h\hmany stretching
down to the coast.

In summer, rivers of
cold fresh meltwater

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hrun under these
glaciers and pour into the sea.

\h\hFreshwater is more
buoyant than saltwater,

so it floats up to the surface,

\hcarrying copepods and
other plankton with it.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSeabirds take
advantage of the opportunity.

\hKittiwakes gather by
the thousands to gorge

on the fatty crustaceans
\h\hand fish that follow.

\h\h\hAs they bring food to
their young on the cliffs,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthey transfer
nutrients from sea to land.

\h\hTheir droppings
fertilize the soil,

spurring the growth of
food for the reindeer.

All around the rookeries, the
land is lush with vegetation.

So even the terrestrial grazers

\h\h\hdepend on the algae
that grows under the ice.

By stealing from
the birds’ nests,

\h\h\hthe fox is also
nourished by the sea.

\hTo avoid foxes, some birds
nest on the smaller islands,

\h\h\hbecause foxes
don’t like to swim.

[birds chirping]

Polar bears, on the other hand,

\h\hare supreme swimmers and
frequently visit the islands.

\h\h\hThose that choose to
stay on Svalbard in summer

\h\h\hrather than traveling
north on the retreating ice

feast on eggs and chicks.

\h\h\h\h\hThere are barnacle
geese and pink-footed geese,

dunlins, loons, long-tailed
\h\h\hducks, and many more.

♪ ♪

For the bears, it’s a buffet.

\h\hASGEIR: That’s why I
went out to these islands

to look for Frost.

\h\hI saw several polar
bears on these islands,

but none of them was her.

\h\h\hFrost might have
followed the ice shelf

\h\h\h\h\h\hwhen the ice
retreated in the summer.

\h\hBut she would then have
to swim more than 60 miles

\h\hback to Svalbard in order to
give birth the following winter.

\h\hWherever she was,
I couldn’t find her.

\h\hNARRATOR: In December
2015, the brunt of winter

brings bitter cold.

[wind howling]

♪ ♪

But then, on New Year’s Eve, the
temperature hits 46 degrees...

... accompanied by heavy rain.

\h\hVery strange weather
for the middle of winter.

♪ ♪

ASGEIR: In mid-February,

\h\h\h\hwhen the sun
returned to Svalbard

after four months of darkness,

I went to look for Frost again.

I looked for her
in all the fjords

where I had seen her before.

\hThese fjords had
always been covered

\hwith a thick layer
of ice in the winter,

but now it was open water.

This was no longer a hunting
\h\hground for a polar bear.

The seals had nowhere to rest.

\h\hIt was only in some
bays with shallow water

\h\hthat the ice had
formed a small crust.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: A thin
coating of ice and snow

\h\hisn’t enough for the
ring seals to build caves

in which to give birth.

\h\h\h\hThey need a thick
layer of old, cracked ice

covered with deep snow drifts.

But that is nowhere to be found.

\h\h\h\hForced to give
birth out in the open,

\h\h\h\htheir exposed
pups are easy targets

for foxes and polar bears.

In the winter of 2016,

\h\hno seal pups survive on
the west coast of Svalbard.

\h\h\h\h\hASGEIR: After
having looked for Frost

for three weeks without success,

I traveled across
to the east coast

as there is usually
much more ice there.

\h\h\hAnd here I was back
in the company of bears.

\h\hAmong them there
was a small she-bear.

\h\h\h\hAnd she was always in
the company of a large male.

But she wasn’t Frost.

♪ ♪

In spring 2016 I was about to

\hgive up finding
Frost ever again.

Then, one day in May, I checked
\ha camera trap outside a cabin

\h\h\h\hwhere I had filmed
Frost several times before.

\h\h\h\h\hThe camera was
there because polar bears

\hoften break into these
cabins looking for food.

\h\h\hThe first clip showed a
young male testing the door.

\h\hThe next clip was
far more interesting.

It was from the previous March,
\h\h2015, and it showed Lucky,

the day before she was
shot at the tent camp,

just three miles away.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hThen... I saw the
bear I was looking for.

It was Frost!

\hShe had come to this cabin
on the 26th of December 2015,

just five months ago.

At that time of year
she should have been

inside a den, with newborn cubs.

\h\h\h\hShe looked so
well-fed and healthy

that I could not understand
why she had not given birth.

\hBut at least I knew she was
alive just a few months ago.

And now I was more determined
\h\hthan ever to find Frost.

[wind howling]

NARRATOR: Asgeir’s search for
Frost must wait another year.

\h\h\h\h\hHe returns to
Svalbard in April 2017,

four years since he first laid
eyes on the polar bear mother.

♪ ♪

\hASGEIR: When I arrived
at the cabin I often use,

I quickly saw that someone
had been there before me.

And they did not use the door.

Right outside the door I found
bear tracks from that same day.

Could it be Frost?

The next day was glorious,

\h\h\hand I had a fantastic
view over the whole fjord.

\hThere were a lot
of seals in sight,

\h\h\h\hwhich is a good sign
when looking for polar bears.

\hBoth ring seals
and bearded seals

lay on the ice enjoying the sun.

\h\h\hAnd here I found what I
had looked for so many times;

\hfresh tracks of a
she-bear with cubs.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hAnd finally I saw a
bear, a rather big bear,

one I had seen so
many times before.

It was Frost.

I don’t know if I can explain

\h\h\hhow happy I was
to meet Frost again.

\h\h\h\hAnd to see that she had
given birth to two little cubs.

Since polar bears on Svalbard
\hare born around Christmas,

the cubs were about three
and a half months old now.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hI have to admit I was
quite surprised to see that

\h\hshe had a big radio
collar around her neck.

I learned she had been tagged by
scientists the previous month.

\h\hIn addition to the collar
she had a number on her back,

\h\hmaking her easy to
identify from the air.

\hThe scientists that tagged
her examined her cubs also --

a male and a female.

\hWhat should I call these
two little furry snowballs?

\h\h\hI wished for them to
have a lot of snow and ice

\hin their future, and so
they became Snow and Ice.

\h\h\hFrost used all
her weight and power

\hin search for seal
caves under the snow.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hIn the end, she
managed to catch a seal.

But she was so busy eating
it that she did not notice

that a big male bear was
heading straight for her.

\hMale bears are the
most dangerous thing

for polar bear cubs.

\h\h\h\hIf they can catch
them they will eat them.

♪ ♪

I looked at Frost and I
looked at the big male.

What could I do?

Nothing.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIn the last
minute, she noticed him.

\h\h\h\hI was so pleased
that the male bear seemed

more interested in the carcass
\hthan he was in Snow and Ice.

\h\h\hWhen he finally
left, Frost returned.

♪ ♪

She came all the way back to me,

\h\hand I had to make sure
she did not get too close.

\hIt almost seemed
like she wanted me

\h\h\hto watch over them
when they were sleeping.

I felt so accepted and so lucky!

♪ ♪

As Frost roused her cubs,

they almost seemed
reluctant to leave.

And I was sorry to see them go.

\h\h\hI really hoped I
would meet them again,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwithout having to
search for several more years.

It’s been four years

\h\h\h\h\hsince I first met
Frost with Light and Lucky.

Her story has been dramatic,

\h\hand so are the changes
taking place in the Arctic.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThey are
affecting the whole planet.

\h\h\hThe future of
Frost, Snow and Ice

\h\hdepends on what happens
to the climate in the end.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hI do not think I
can forget about them.

\hAnd I cannot ignore what
is happening to their home.

But it is my home too.

\h\hThis planet is
home to all of us.

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