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SPRING 2016
LIFE
AQUATIC
M
y life began in Israel, far from
the polar latitudes. But in the
sweltering days of my youth
I dreamed of the polar bears,
icebergs and Inuit of the high
Arctic. I became obsessed with
the vision, and I made it my life’s mission to observe,
study and understand
Ursus maritimus
— the polar bear.
A half century later I am in Svalbard, hoping to
document female polar bears nursing their cubs and
hunting. Late spring is when to find mothers with cubs;
having recently given birth, the mothers will be wandering
about the shrinking pack ice hunting for sustenance.
Polar bears’ range is largely
within the Arctic Circle, which
encompasses the Arctic Ocean, its
sea ice and its surrounding seas
and land masses. Although polar
bears are typically born on land,
they spend most of their time on
sea ice. They hunt at the ice edge
and live primarily off their fat
reserves when no sea ice is present.
These bears have evolved to
occupy a narrow ecological niche:
They are highly adapted to the
cold and capable of covering great
distances over snow, ice and open water. They’re also
very adept at hunting seals, which make up most of their
diet. Because of expected habitat loss in the changing
global climate, the International Union for Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has classified
polar bears as “vulnerable,” and at least three of the 19
polar bear subpopulations are currently in decline.
Each day we set out on snowmobiles with camera
gear and enough food and clothing for 12 to 14 hours.
We synchronized our days to optimal light and the
bears’ hunting patterns. There are no words to describe
the experience of driving fast through totally white
hills, moving from one fjord to the next and stopping
every so often to take in the amazing landscape before
us — it engendered a profound feeling of being alive.
On the third day our guide, Einar, spotted movement
about two miles away. Through his balaclava he
whispered, “Mother and cub.” I looked through my
binoculars and beheld the remarkable vision of a bear
moving slowly along the ice with two cubs strolling
behind her. They sniffed the air and the ground, trying
to find a seal hole. Our guide calculated the wind
direction and set about determining our best position
with regard to light and proximity.
For the next three hours we shadowed the family.
Before long the mother bear stopped to sit. She exposed a
black nipple to nourish the cubs with her milk. We closed
the distance to 100 yards, and I quietly set up a tripod on
the ice and mounted my camera’s 600mm lens to capture
this tender moment among apex predators (see Page 6).
The feeding lasted for about 15
minutes, and then the family fell
asleep on the ice right in front of
us. We had no choice but to stay
put until the two rambunctious
cubs began chasing each other and
the somnambulant mother moved
them on their way again. Only then
could we move as well.
The mother had to hunt. She
would not have eaten during
her pregnancy, and nursing two
demanding young ones meant she
needed food for them all. I saw her
place her head close to the ice, sniffing, and then raise
her head, close her eyes and sniff again. Einar informed
us she was seeking a seal somewhere nearby.
Stopping his snowmobile, Einar went totally silent,
picked up his binoculars and with a hand signal
demanded we be still. The mother bear had positioned
herself with her hindquarters in the air and her nose
nearly touching the ice. Einar whispered to us that she
was on high alert and that this was a good hunting hole.
We would have to be extremely quiet as any sound above
the ice would be amplified greatly beneath it. We could
scare the seal away from the hole and cause the bear to
lose her opportunity. Slowly and with great care we set up
our cameras and tripods. For once I was wishing for those
hot sunny days in Israel — I was freezing my butt off.
We had been there for almost two hours when
suddenly the bear stood up tall and with lightning speed
IN THE COMPANY OF POLAR BEARS
ABOVE AND BELOW THE SURFACE
Text and photos by Amos Nachoum