The Arctic is an ocean covered with ice and surrounded by the mainland. Every season here will bring many changes. Polar bears hunt on the cold ice all winter. But winter is so long that seals are hard to find. At its heaviest, a male bear weighs as much as ten people, but when a polar bear spends the winter, its weight will become much lighter.
The ringed seal is the smallest Arctic seal and the favorite food of polar bears. Adult seals are very experienced and alert. Once they find danger, they will flee to the water. Seals have many ice caves in their underwater homes for them to surface and breathe. In this way, they can escape the killing of polar bears. But adult seals have to worry about baby seals. Because baby seals have never seen polar bears since they were born, they don't know how dangerous they are.
The polar bear's hunt was unsuccessful. A mother bear without cubs winters on the ice. The competition between male and female bears is fierce. In order to avoid other competitors, the male bear with scar tried his best to take the female bear to a remote place.
In April, life on the Arctic iceberg began to wake up. The mother bear took the bear out of the cave for the first time. This bear was born in an ice cave four months ago. Now they have to face the dangerous world on the ice with their mother.
The situation on the ice is changing every year, and the distribution of seals is unpredictable. Polar bears can only travel thousands of kilometers to find the best hunting place.
They look for prey along the ice ridge formed by the collision of ice cubes. In the leeward of the surrounding ice ridge, it is the place where seals raise their cubs. There is a lot of space in the bird's nest, but there is only one passage to the sea. The baby seal hid in an ice cave under the snow.
Polar bears have a keen sense of smell. It can smell the seals hiding in Zita Law one kilometer away. Even so, polar bears must detect the exact location where the seal is hiding. But the subtle "chirp" sound of stepping on the snow will expose its trace. This time, the baby seal escaped. Usually hunters hunt twenty times and only have one chance to succeed.
Hunting requires skill and patience, but it is difficult for a polar bear to succeed alone. Female bears are usually dragged down by little bears, and it is difficult to succeed. If it can't catch enough prey and feed them with enough milk, the bear will die. So far, this family has been doing well. The mother bear found a lot of food to ensure the healthy life of the two little ones.
In April, polar bears gathered in the seal habitat of Barbat Islands, about 65,438+0,000 kilometers north of Norway. Here, they can catch those unsuspecting baby seals.
These little bears are one and a half years old, and it's time to have a big appetite. Their growing bodies put a lot of pressure on the mother bear. Older bears and even their mothers will compete with them for food. So the bear has to wolf down his food to get his share.
If there is enough food, the mother bear and her baby will stay here for more than two years. There is still a lot to learn before children can live independently. Like most animals, adult polar bears don't waste hard-won energy. But for bears, fighting is a necessary practice.
Driven by curiosity, they learn how to adapt to the new environment, which is very important for their lives. Bear's initial learning is imitation learning, and their mother is their teacher. But they are too thin to break through the snow and enter the seal's nest.
The mammal that can still be seen on the ice is the arctic fox. Their active areas are scattered within the range of polar bears. Although Arctic foxes also kill baby seals, they kill them at most once a week, and most of them feed on carrion. They follow polar bears and eat their leftovers. On the ice far from the mainland, the survival of arctic foxes depends entirely on polar bears.
It is very important for arctic foxes and polar bears to take care of their fur. The fox's hair is very thick and good, just like the bear's, each one is hollow and well insulated.
The polar bear family has been tracking the smell of a dead seal for a long time. The precious fat that can provide energy in this dead seal has been eaten. Because polar bears eat fat first after catching seals, in case they are suddenly taken away by other bears. But there is still a lot of meat on the bones, which is priceless food for bears who are not proficient in hunting and families who are in urgent need of protein to raise their cubs.
June. With the arrival of summer, the Arctic ice began to loosen, and the polar bear's world was changed. The seal family had the scariest time. Because there are many breathing holes on the water, they don't have to be afraid of the sneak attack of polar bears.
Bearded seals are very big. They like to stay on big ice floes. When these solid ice cubes break, these seals will migrate to nearby land. Bearded seals weigh five times as much as ringed seals and almost as much as polar bears. They are valuable prey if they can be caught.
Polar bears have distinct personalities. After they learn to hunt from their mothers, they can rely on their own experience to cope with the survival problem alone. The young bear is hunting alone. It uses ice floes and waterways as a cover to quietly approach its chosen prey. Small pieces of ice floes hide its figure and make it approach the target step by step. The desire for a full meal fell through. The first year of one's life is the hardest.
Twenty-four hours of sunshine raises the temperature. The polar bear hunting platform is slowly melting. For most animals and birds, summer is a colorful season. But for polar bears, this is the hardest time of the year. When the sea ice disappears, it is almost impossible to kill seals. They live a lonely life and keep a long distance from each other.
When the ice melts, polar bears are also ready to migrate to land. The vast water can't stop them. Their fur is so perfect that they can not only keep out the cold in winter, but also keep out the water in summer. The ice is melting, and the polar bear has begun a long landing journey. They had to swim in the cold sea for many hours and reach the shore 100 km away. Polar bears can even be called "sea bears". He is a huge and excellent swimmer. In fact, he still has webbed marks on his feet, so he can paddle quickly.
When the ice melts completely, polar bears will spend five months on land. There is almost no food here, but they have a way to survive the famine season safely. In addition to activities and hunting, they try to reduce their metabolism to save energy.
September. All the ice in the Arctic has melted. In late summer, walruses can be seen dragging their bodies slowly on Fewrangell Island in Siberia. Maybe one year after ten years, the ice will melt too far north, stranding walruses on the beach. The polar bear also stayed on the island. These prey generously gave relief to the hungry.
A mature walrus is very strong and has thick skin, so it is difficult for polar bears to catch them. But once the baby walrus is exposed from the walrus group, it is easy to be captured. Polar bears are lucky to have so much food in this food shortage season. Although polar bears live alone most of the year, they often walk together at this time. When you are full, there is nothing to argue about.
On Churchill Beach in Hudson Bay, Canada. Polar bears endure hunger that is cruel to mammals. Since the ice melted in July, they haven't eaten any serious food except a little seaweed and berries.
When the first snowstorm in winter comes, the nervous nerves of polar bears can be relaxed, but the matter of filling their stomachs is still far away. The water in the lake freezes quickly, but it will take a long time for the sea surface to freeze. Only in this way can seals be captured.
In summer and autumn, male bears who stay near Churchill's coast endure hunger, but they can tolerate each other. In fact, they have been socialized. Here, there is no food and no female bear, so there is nothing worth fighting for. It is natural for males and bears to get together. When the weather gets cold, don't worry about overheating. Male bears occasionally fight. There is no harm in fighting between males and bears. This is their way of identifying each other's strength level and finding out the future situation of their opponents. Because when spring comes, the competition for female bears is very frequent and fierce. In the present exercise, it is better to find that you can't beat your opponent than to endure pain later.
1 1 month, the long-awaited freeze has finally arrived. But the thickness of the ice can't bear their weight, and polar bears still stick to the land. 1 1 in the middle of the month, the days become shorter, and the thickness of sea ice can bear their weight. After enduring hunger for a long time, they lost a third of their weight, but now they can catch ringed seals again.
The northern lights appear in the sky. A pregnant female bear will live here for four months under the thick snow. The bear was born in its mother's belly for 60 days. It looks helpless and can't see anything. Although in the world of ice and snow, the temperature outside is only MINUS 50 degrees, but the bear is curled up in his mother's arms under the snow and feels very warm.
In a few months, the bear will face the unknown world on the ice. At that time, a young polar bear warrior will appear on the battlefield of ice and snow, showing the competition for generations to survive.