Polar Bears

Various shots of polar bears on ice floes and in the water close to the Arctic Sunrise. Polar bears are suprisingly agile and also very strong swimmers, they are able to negotiate the mixed terrain of solid sea ice and broken floes of ice, occasionally swimming from one floe to the next. In completely open water, or in an environment free of sea ice, however, polar bears cannot survive for very long; they are entirely dependent on sea ice from which to hunt from. At one point, one polar bear becomes fascinated with a 'reference sphere' used by an architect who was collaborating with scientists working on Arctic sea ice. The cub and its mother stopped science work prematurely when they came by the ship which was moored to an ice floe. While the researchers watched from the safety of the ship the cub proceeded to play with the ball on a stick, pawing it biting it and trying to pull it from the ground. Afterwards the work accessing Arctic sea ice thickness and characteristics continued.