Polar Bears: A Close Encounter Of Survival In The Arctic | Polar Bear Documentary

[Music] high above the Arctic Circle hundreds of polar bears are about to become marooned on an island the ice flows are melting leaving the Bears high and [Music] dry to capture this phenomenon on film two men will have to live surrounded by the world's biggest land [Music] carnivore and when an orphan blows in on a storm it too faces a struggle for [Music] survival until the ice returns only the toughest will make it through a stay in polar bear alcatra the cold beauty of the Russian Arctic envelops Wrangle Island winter temperatures can plunge to as low as - 35 C the ice of the chukchi and East Siberian Seas hems in the island for most of the year at its peak 14 million square kilm of ice covers the whole of the Arctic Ocean perfect for those adapted to The Big Chill like polar bears and their favorite prey ring seals whose pups are almost 50% blabber this is the land the ch Chi Alaska population of polar bears they favor Wrangle like no other place in the Arctic these Bears wander thousands of kilometers between Northwestern Alaska and Eastern Siberia lying west of the baring Strait and north of Siberia Wrangle is a vital tow hold for wildlife in a Frozen landscape of the 22,000 or so polar bears left in the world the highest density of all can be found right here even so scientists believe that this species could be treading on thin ice climate change is advancing the melting of the polar ice sheet so fast that polar bears could be heading for extinction this Century with so many females giving birth on Wrangle the island is vital for their survival filmmaker an NRA has spent years living alongside polar bears in sbad he's now coming to Wrangle to capture its unique story I'm really excited I heard so much about this place from my friend Nikita but this will be the first time I see the strange polar bear Phenomenon with my own eyes he's headed for Cape Blossom on the Island's Southwestern tip one of the biggest polar bear hotspots of all dozens of them congregate on this peninsula for most of the year the sea around Wrangle is almost completely Frozen but during the short summer the pack ice melts some years fragments of sea ice remain and the Bears continue hunting on the flows away from Land not for nothing thing is its scientific name ursus maritimus the seab bear but every few years water cuts off the island entirely for bears caught on the edges of the receding ice Wrangle becomes a vital staging post but stopping here can mean getting stuck for weeks given that scientists have tracked polar bears swimming for up to 161 km why do they op for this stint of incarceration perhaps like ship directed Mariners the bears become stranded forced to wait for rescue aret to has come prepared to Maroon himself and [Music] Wrangle more than 5,000 km from his family home in Norway his pulse quickens with the first sight of Cape Blossom where one extraordinary man Nikita of siano and his dog nuk are waiting to welcome him as AR greets his old friend he quickly spots why trust will play a big part in this assignment this has been Nikita's home from home for nearly two decades no one knows the polar bears of wrangle like Nikita of sanov and no one quite knows when or how this Expedition will end Nikita lays down the ground rules uh here this year I have uh problems in sitations situation with beer so please follow my instructions precisely the problem is not so much the Bears are trapped again after all that's why both men are here this is one of those years when there is open water as far as the eye can see but the Pacific Wares are playing hard to get normally Cape Bloss is a warus rookery the stakes are high as this is the biggest land predator of all the men will never be able to let their guard down an over curious or Hungry Bear could create a dangerous situation the boundaries must be enforced but Nikita refuses to carry a gun and even though an is used to filming near polar bears he's impressed by Nikita's personal light touch the ship numbers of bears here may be a clear and present danger but they also offer unparalleled advantages for the eager cameraman the ice has been steadily retreating for the past few [Music] weeks Arie notices the same mother and two Cubs pass by Nikita's cabin every day on their way to the tip of the cape where they gather on the beach in search of [Music] food but there's little scent of any prey in the air the Bears are truly high and [Music] dry but there's no time to take in the scenery as suddenly out of the blue Ane gets his first close encounter on Wrangle and Nikita captures it on film a rather skinny adult male Strays Too Close AR wants to get the Bear's picture but he also needs to push it away he's going to have to be prepared for more of these encounters if he's to survive in Nikita's neighborhood despite being given the Inuit name for polar bear the dog nanuk is in danger of Fanning the Flames bears are often active at night and with tensions between humans and animals escalating Nikita and an must be extremely [Music] Vigilant will spikes and bars be enough to see the two men through the [Music] night in spite of their defenses an intruder breaks in what a way to to wake up dur the middle of the night sleeping in a dark room of course and hear this this loud sound and uh Nikita was on his feet a second or so I tried to grab my camera to to film this event but uh I was too late when I actually came out here he had uh given the the pepper spray and and that was that it's not good to be in the same room as a as a polar bear that's that's for sure but I think she was after our our meat rather than us Nikita wastes no time securing the damage in the morning a young male is on the prow he's not big enough to be last night's visitor [Music] though Arie gives this newcomer an Inu name for ice seu this one is probably also drawn by the smell of reindeer meat in aita's ladder time for AR to meet his neighbors on his own terms he wants to see for himself how they've been coping with a summer of little or no food far from the ice it'll be several weeks before the ice returns not a good own for the Bears or the men as their natural prey disappears human habitations may be well worth a second look no harm in trying at least on the beach there's that female again with her two Cubs leaving the cape probably not a good day's hunting and things can only get [Music] worse Nikita and AR watch her with interest polar bears are solitary except during times of vital social bonding such as when bringing up Cubs males do not raise their offspring it's the mothers that provide all the parental care a small carb offers few calories but adult bears do sometimes kill infants perhaps to wipe out competitors's genes and force a female to mate again the polar bear is a heavyweight champion and despite its massive bulk it can charge at speeds of up to 40 km hour taken by this little family AR decides to give the mother a nickname Ursula after usus maritimus he watches as she leads her Cubs from an old hunting ground walrus carcasses are often still here from the previous years when the polar bear is gorged on the fat and isar the rest of the bodies luckily Ursula has up to 11 cm of blubber under her own fur to see her through these lean [Applause] times carbs normally stick with their mother for about 2 and 1 half years their Survival on the ice depends on her if only it would return because this year the walruses are staying away from the beach where normally they call themselves out of the water they huddle offshore seemingly content to let their predators pick over the remains of the Dead perhaps the number of stranded Bears is just too much of a [Music] deterrent Nikita uses a disused ship's navigation Tower as shelter during his long hours head counting in past years these shores would have offered plenty of fresh waros plubber for more than 100 polar bears Nikita knows he's counted them but very few of the carcasses are here from polar bear kills most of these victims were crushed to death in their Panic to get back into the water when the colony was [Music] spooked by rights the Bears should be gorging on Fresh blubber right now leaving the meat behind for the snowy eles AR wonders how normally solitary Nomads go habit without friction could one reason be the need to conserve energy with such a huge build they can expend far more energy than most mammals hence their preference for still hunting sitting over ice holes waiting for a seal to pop up for air better than taking the plunge to Open Water polar bears manage to catch their prey less than 2% of the time but these odds may still be better than trying to land an uncooperative reindeer and warus that won't come out of the [Music] water with only meager scraps from Years Gone by Nikita's Shack with its full lder is a beacon in a Land of want the Bear's prospects of a fresh meal diminish but it could be a lot worse at least Nikita protects them from poachers although his and an's own Survival must come first but so far Nikita has had around a thousand encounters with polar bears without any harm to himself or the Bears his unique policing technique pays off Nikita uses a psychological approach polar bears are highly inquisitive animals with a keen ability to learn new things in spite of keeping the Bears at arms length he lives as close as is humanly possible to them without his daring intimacy he couldn't examine year after year the changes that take place in their behavior his work is a crucial contribution to our understanding of the polar bear's chances of survival in the face of climate change and after so many years living alongside polar bears Nikita knows how they operate research shows that in almost all cases polar bears attacking people were either provoked or desperate for food people walking or running away can also trigger the Bear's instincts to give Chase to a potential prey animal Here Comes seu again the juvenile male is always too nosy for his own good I think he is just curious about what's going on here but also he is checking Kim ground and hope to find some remains so I have to push him away not to let him get used for staying with [Applause] us nuk though has someone else in his sights is this Ursula hanging around again now no is a Hardy samid but he's barely on the right side of the thin divide between life and death if this is the female that Anie calls Ursula and something is wrong she had two Cubs a female would never leave a cub behind unless something had happened an adult may be able to take life on cap Blossom and its stride but Cubs face a daunting future alone around here nothing is certain despite 25 years in the field Wrangle has some new lessons for Arie standing on its rear legs this fully grown Colossus could look an elephant in the eye and it's hardly likely to be intimidated by AR's makeshift offenses after the stick the pepper spray into the bear's face is the last line of defense if he's unfortunate enough to get that close but after 3 weeks on Nita's self-defense course Arie is giving the right signals to the bear at the same time as doing his day job getting up close and personal with an animal he loves and respects this male has obviously been to Nikita's classes too and it seems to sense a fight would not be worth its [Music] while as the Autumn draws on the warres are still refusing to haul onto the beach bad news for the polar bear good news for the wus it wasn't always this way for years Nikita has been recording these two Titans of the Arctic going head-to-head normally tens of thousands of Pacific warres pour themselves out of the water to rest here to take on prey this size the polar bear needs not only strong teeth but a very large stomach and that's precisely what it's got for those big meals that make up for Luna [Music] times it can devour up to 45 kilos of blubber in one sitting not this time a full-grown female warus merely rolls away having shed perhaps smaller prey back into the water what's left how about a sick female but the warus barely raises a whisker and is rewarded with the warmest bear hug of [Music] all a war Rus can weigh three times more than a polar bear and is in tasted in a layer of blubber and skin that's over 15 cm [Music] thick the usual warus bounty in ice free years perhaps explains why the Bears opt for a stint on Wrangle an empty Beach and high winds coming in off the sea puts an end to the Day [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] filming AR wonders whether the Bears need to see pack I on the sea before they risk to taking to the water but it's not very well understood how Bears know whether the ice is [Music] forming the magic of an Arctic morning a cameraman's dream and a new twist to his story [Music] a cub blown in on the Storm its mother is nowhere to be seen less than a year old Nikita knows it cannot fend for itself and it's probably [Music] hungry the Cub's identity and why it was separated from its mother a Mysteries the men are Keen to [Music] [Music] unravel Nikita heads for the other side of the island looking for Clues will he find a female missing her Cup in such a desperate environment neither Nikita nor Ane jumped conclusions AR will Scout the area nearer the [Music] cabin Nikita soon finds more distressing signs of hunger then a more chilling sight [Music] the body of what appears to be a female a black nipple is clearly visible could it be arela and if so how did she die has the situation on Wrangle Island come to cannibalism the lone Cub is still at base camp [Music] is this its dead [Music] mother carcasses of the Dead are always eaten by the living but it's not clear how the female died unaware of Nikita's Discovery an pushes on [Music] a beluga whale swims with its dark gray calf off the point a snowy owl scourers the shoreline for leming prey the owls at least have wings and don't rely on the ice to [Music] escape close to extinction in its native Norway an arctic fox sniffs for scraps of carrying under the [Music] snow these animals trying to find what they need to survive before the wind winter sets in crabs blown in by the storm are a bonus an is an expert in filming in these conditions and he won't risk hypothermia he takes shelter in Nikita's cabin at the navigation Tower incredibly the C has followed an all the way from base camp an wonders why a young wild CB would seem to try and attach itself to a human hungry still I know you're not able to catch any seal alone but um tried to follow the adults it's not [Music] easy on the other side of the island Nikita scourers for more clues could the Dead bear he found be the Cubs mother with the Cub safe AR takes the opportunity to capture the evening [Music] light over the next few weeks the Cub stays close and the cameras keep rolling the men's Sympathy for the young bear grows but they're anxious not to let it become dependent on them even though the mystery about its mother may never be solved before the ice reclaims the [Music] island [Music] the elements move in obscure ways in the high [Music] Arctic here at the North Pole the atmosphere conjur up these Celestial Northern [Music] Lights hallucinating and beautiful as they are the solar winds that create them are dangerous were it not for the Earth's atmosphere life on our planet would be [Music] impossible they're a restless and disquieting phenomenon for those troubled by events on the [Music] ground AR's assignment has proved every bit as challenging as he thought after a month's filming and writing and with winter on the horizon he's concerned now about how it'll all end for the Bears and for himself nothing can be taken for granted on Wrangle even simple daily [Music] rituals the bathroom is only a short walk and with the infamous stick and a Nook on Sentry Duty Annie has covered all the [Music] [Applause] pieces but seiku gives nug the slip rude cracks in the door can sometimes save your life siku's outwardly endearing curiosity feeds a drive for survival an could charge the bear and assert his authority over the impotent youngster but time is on siku's side why is it the Bears always seem to have the edge [Music] Nikita is on hand to help though he's in no hurry let the cameras record this for posterity a good family laugh back at home in Norway but Nikita knows that ultimately it's no laughing [Music] matter because the polar bear can easily get through this door if they want to you must remember we are living in the middle of the Polar Bear Country makita's got siku's number he uh understands very well the language of of threat and he uh is cautious oh polar beers are cautious so they don't risk to uh uh get involved in situations where they can get hurt so they just from the very childhood they uh learn uh to respect power and they understand threat display and they avoid risk for themselves so that's why it is possible and in most cases easy to manage interactions with them this my friend is very curious to come back so I should give him a lesson [Music] an has to admit that without Nikita and his stick it would not have been quite so easy even a Nook makes up for letting his guard down if only life on Wrangle Island were always so entertaining much of the time is spent on daily chores but another storm heralding the onset of winter reminds AR that he must savor every precious moment even at the ouse this time the problem isn't so much getting out safely but getting in for the Bears their time too is running out adults won't starve here as long as the ice returns noise cold a problem with their thick layer of blubber and an insulating coat of dense fur even heat-seeking infrared technology struggles to detect them in the snow despite having the same survival gear Cubs are far more vulnerable so you pay me a visit you you want reindeer meat from our store this make life difficult for me too you know you are a wild creature and I'm not supposed to give you any food but I know what you think you think that these rules are not made for small polar bear CBS I could agree on that I'm not supposed to interfere that's my problem Oh but you are hungry I know [Music] with a heavy heart Anna encourages the cuup to leave if it gets used to humans it could be for a troubled life that's if it makes it four to six out of every 10 Cubs die in their first year from starvation predation and accidents now no and the Cub keep their [Music] distance the dog tucks into its dinner all in very poor taste for the Little Cub time could be running [Applause] out AR to must get off the island before winter and 24-hour Darkness prevents his own rescue it's bad news from the mainland the helicopter scheduled to collect AR next week is grounded indefinitely due to bad weather I can't help being a little bit frustrated and um I might very well be stuck here until next spring an's already been in Russia for 3 months [Music] but is the tide now turning for the Bears do they feel the ice coming with a winter [Music] air an thinks they do the men are still keen on to interfere with nature but the remains of a reindeer killed for their ladder gives the opportunistic Cub a lucky Break Even Bears this young are tough despite the number of arctic foxes around the Cub will probably have its fill [Music] the Cub probably didn't managed to stand its ground an's inspection finds a few bear prints hopes of finding the Cub's mother fade it was 6 weeks ago that the female Annie called Ursula was last seen with her two Cubs then one day the sight of a female with fresh meat in its jaws leads to a new clue and Tiny Paws bring tears to even the toughest of men could this dead youngster be Ursula's Cub having already found the dead female the men can't help but wonder whatever the identity of the Unlucky Cub it was probably alone without a mother to protect it a cub is vulnerable to starvation or [Applause] attack even if the Dead bears they found aren't Ursula and her CB what is clear is that starvation claims many lives on Wrangle and even the mighty polar bear is not immune polar bears have been known to eat the Flesh of Their Own Kind this Cub sticks close to its mother she will put up a vigorous defense if provoked by another bear [Music] but there's something more powerful even than hunger in the air something that could save every bear on the island winter has arrived and the ice train is back a polar bear runs to meet the ice that signals rescue off the eyce Island winds and waves push a newly formed ice irresistibly towards land a solitary seal Heralds the end of a 2month fast for the Bears of wrangle [Music] Island and what about an's Little Orphan what will a lone Cub make of the big freeze [Music] [Music] you're checking me out are you I think you actually are asking for contact physical contact what the situation I wonder how many people in the world have had this close contact with a polar bear C try to be independent now we have to leave you very soon anyway oo [Music] known as frazil I its crystals freeze into a thin film of Grease ice strong enough to support a seabird but not a bear it won't be long till the flows thicken to a depth of 2 or 3 [Music] m this summer has given Nikita valuable new data starvation becomes more common in times of Open Sea when the ice is marginal and stormy seas exhaust bears that attempt to hunt staying marooned on Wrangle may offer the path of lease [Music] resistance once the ice is thick enough the time to hitch a ride for some and with giant Paws for snowshoes the ice holds up well for others but this bear spreads its weight over the fragile surface Anie has never before seen a bear dragging itself across the ice like a seal an's favorite arctic foxes are back for a last appearance trust him to get as close as humanly possible he'll give this shot pride of place back home in [Music] Norway but sadly not this one such are the cruel vagaries of life in the high Arctic even for the Wy Fox as the Bears leave Ane and Nikita ready themselves for their own [Music] departure an can't believe his eyes goone you can make it the men are Overjoyed to see the Cub taking its own tentative steps towards the ice staying close to adal Bears it may be able to feed off their leftovers until it's big enough to hunt [Music] alone and seeing a mother with two Cubs far out on the ice an hopes Ursula made it to Freedom [Music] too joined in a common cause an and Nikita will leave rangle with their friendship strengthened and they will take with them the mystery of a little Cub with no mother a young orphan that Against All Odds has shown it was tough enough to survive an uncertain start to [Music] life [Music]

Channel: Wild Habitat - Nature Documentaries

Views: 5,038

Keywords: polar bear, polar bears, polar bears documentary, polar bear alcatraz, apex predators, polar bears and cubs, polar bears hunting, polar bears dying, bears, bear documentary, wildlife, arctic wildlife, arctic wildlife documentary, polar bears arctic, arctic documentary, arctic bears, arctic predators, polar bear survival

Id: zGk9kyFJsy0

Length: 50min 48sec (3048 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024