Polar Bears: A Summer Odyssey (2012) is a Canadian nature documentary that offers a compelling glimpse into the challenging life of polar bears during the Arctic summer. Directed by Sarah Robertson, the film follows a young polar bear as it embarks on a journey of survival in a rapidly changing environment. With sea ice melting earlier each year, polar bears must adapt to new conditions and navigate long swims, hunger, and isolation. The stunning cinematography highlights the fragility of the Arctic ecosystem, making the film both visually captivating and environmentally significant.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00He is the apex predator of the Arctic.
00:08Now the ice bear is under siege.
00:11The threat, an adversary that's deadlier, more powerful than any he's ever faced.
00:22A gauntlet of challenges beyond any the Arctic has dealt him.
00:38After millions of years of ruling the ice, has the polar bear met his match?
00:56The Arctic ice guards a secret.
01:03Bleak and barren as it seems, it stirs with life.
01:12But look a little deeper.
01:27To last the year, the ice bear needs to eat 40 seals.
01:33One more is all it'll take.
01:38Spring is almost over.
01:41If he doesn't catch this one, he may not survive.
02:02That may be his death knell.
02:07He can't hunt seals without the ice.
02:14Now the ice is about to disappear.
02:25It's late June.
02:33A few generations ago, the ice bear would have had another month before he ran out of
02:39time to make his quota of seals.
02:43But this year, his world is shrinking early.
03:02He's got no choice.
03:32Ice bear is three years old, just a teen by polar bear standards.
03:48Now he's got to somehow make it to shore, almost 500 grueling kilometers away.
03:59He's done it before, guided by his mother.
04:03Now he's on his own, and it's going to be one of the longest, cruelest summers on record.
04:15He's one of 2,000 bears who live in Canada's Hudson Bay.
04:21Every year, when the ice melts, some have to head south, first to islands along their
04:27way, then to the mainland.
04:37Ice bear and his community live farther south than any other polar bears on the planet.
04:47For generations, they've been the only group forced to survive off the ice all summer.
04:56If the world keeps warming, they won't be alone.
05:04Polar bears around the world may also be exiled, and face the same life-or-death struggle.
05:19All across Hudson Bay, marine mammals are looking for summer homes.
05:27Walruses, a tempting source of fat.
05:39Ice bear can pick up a scent almost a kilometer away.
05:50This may be his one chance to make up for that seal he missed before the ice melted.
06:02The walrus's nose is keen, too.
06:17The mother's guards go up.
06:23Ice bear is taking on a creature who's adept in the water, a ton of tusk and trouble.
06:35It is a remarkable encounter.
06:45A scene rarely witnessed.
07:08Being on his own for the first time is harrowing.
07:14One in five adolescent bears die.
07:26For cubs to survive, their mother's lessons have to last them a lifetime.
07:46Boy, cub girl, neither's got much fat for energy and insulation.
08:04They keep close to mom, mimicking her every move.
08:11For the first two years of her cub's life, they're completely dependent on her.
08:38They're still nursing.
08:39She needs to find herself food, or her cubs won't last.
08:50This desolate slab is just a pit stop, though its scent is now forever ingrained in her
08:58cub's memory.
09:10That's what's keeping Ice Bear going now.
09:13His memory has led him to the same islands.
09:18The scent he's picked up, thick-billed murres.
09:38The division between sky and sea is lost on them.
09:48This time of year, the plankton bloom draws herring and shrimp, a feast for murres.
10:14The bear smells a meal, too.
10:21But there's 200 meters between him and it.
10:29It's a challenge no sensible adult bear would go for.
10:34Leave it to a desperate team.
10:58The murres pick cliffs for their colonies to keep predators from approaching.
11:15The ledges are just enough purchase.
11:21Nobody expects a cliff-climbing polar bear.
11:38This is behavior never before captured on video.
11:59The question is, for all the risk and work, is it worth it?
12:06Not for one chick.
12:07Bones and feathers are a recipe for starvation.
12:13Ice Bear needs fat.
12:30His only hope is still 250 kilometers away.
12:37He's got to make it to the mainland.
12:49There are no landmarks to guide him.
12:56Incredibly, he can orient by day to the sun.
13:16By night, the stars are his compass.
13:39He may actually use them to track his course ahead.
13:40Ice Bear doesn't sleep or eat.
14:03After ten days, land.
14:14But then polar bears are built to last on ice, not land.
14:40For Ice Bear, survival might be a long shot.
15:01Ice Bear actually evolved from a land bear, like the grizzly.
15:09Now he's forced to revisit his roots and adapt.
15:20He's not equipped to hunt this strange prey, animals of the earth, not the ice.
15:38And he's not designed for the heat.
15:45It's 28 degrees Celsius.
15:55Misery.
15:56At least the bugs get to eat.
16:22There's no way to get comfortable.
16:45Another older male has been here long enough to know.
16:49Get wet.
16:53Ice Bear has got to learn the ropes.
17:01That's one thing he's got going for him.
17:03Polar bears are eager students.
17:19One life lesson he needs now is how to keep from starving.
17:32In fact, scarfing down snacks is a mistake.
17:38The veteran knows that eating would throw off the altered state he's in.
17:46To get his metabolism to slow down, the older male is fasting the whole summer.
17:57It's a zombie-like state called walking hibernation.
18:04He'll live off his fat reserves and spend his waking hours half-awake.
18:16But the ice bear can't swing it.
18:19He's too young to make the metabolic change.
18:23He can last the length of a typical summer before starvation sets in.
18:34The problem is summer has gotten longer.
18:52This female is already at death's door.
18:57She didn't eat enough seals before the ice broke up.
19:10Drinking is a sign of desperation.
19:21If she were healthy, she'd get hydrated by metabolizing her own fat.
19:27But she has no fat.
19:28It's a cruel fate.
19:57To come so far just to suffer on a distant shore.
20:18Not all Hudson Bay bears put their trust in the land.
20:25It's August, and a straggler is still adrift.
20:28He's got a strategy to stay here the whole season long.
20:38He's learned to hunt along the way and take on a walrus.
20:56In the water, the straggler is no match for a walrus.
21:02But eventually, the herd needs to rest.
21:20The perfect opportunity for an ambush.
21:30They've been out on a four-day binge foraging for clams.
21:35Now they're exhausted.
21:41One catch and the straggler will have enough to last him for days.
21:53A calf's body is one-third fat.
21:57But the young are all surrounded by adults, big, dangerous animals.
22:06While they're restless, their guard is up.
22:19There's no such thing as one itchy walrus.
22:25The herd that molts together, itches together.
22:49And finally, most bears wouldn't risk it.
22:57The hungry straggler isn't thinking twice.
23:19The straggler approaches downwind to avoid detection.
23:50A mother's instinct to care for her young is a powerful drive.
24:02There's only one that can be stronger.
24:08Hunger.
24:18The straggler will follow the herd all summer, picking off calves with ease.
24:32He won't need to bother migrating to land this year.
24:44Some castaways aren't so lucky.
24:51Here, far from where the bears belong, death is a fact of life.
25:06He may have died from an injury or from swimming those hundreds of kilometers to get here.
25:13But his misfortune may be the starving female's salvation.
25:43Cannibalism is rare among polar bears.
26:09Being forced to live on land changes everything.
26:22On the ice, she's a noble hunter.
26:26Now, she's reduced to scavenging the flesh of her own kind.
26:36In 16 years, the Western Hudson Bay polar bears have dwindled by a staggering 22%.
26:48This female probably won't survive the season.
27:03For mother and cubs, the journey is finally over.
27:08But the odyssey has taken a toll on her.
27:16Through the long journey here, she's had to nurse them.
27:23While adult males withdraw into walking hibernation, her cubs depend on her being awake.
27:34The demands of nursing can be dire.
27:38Somehow, she's got to find food.
27:58The ice bear seizes an opportunity, takes the mother's cue, and follows her.
28:12She's guided by memory of an exhausting three-day walk to a cove where she's found food before.
28:37Here, beluga whales rub against the rocks and molt their skin.
28:54When the tide goes out, a few get beached.
29:11Mother and cubs feed first.
29:14Cub boy and cub girl are beginning to get weaned.
29:18And what better inducement?
29:21Ice bear knows to give the family wide berth.
29:31Some scraps tide him over.
29:34And rather than fight, he's learned to conserve his energy.
29:43He's learned to be patient, though he's on the verge of starvation.
30:09The ice bear, after weeks of waiting, it's time to eat.
30:22Mom isn't yet free of her burden to nurse.
30:27And now she's got another problem.
30:33The ice bear is going to follow her everywhere.
30:38For him, that could make the difference between life and death.
30:54September.
31:00With the fall, animals are on the move.
31:10But one is settling in for the long haul.
31:18By now, every polar bear that's coming ashore has arrived.
31:25On the ice, they would have led lives apart.
31:29Polar bears in the high north seldom cross paths.
31:34The Hudson Bay bears are different.
31:47This time of year, they're forced into a narrow corridor of shoreline.
31:53They socialize.
31:57And ice bear gets to learn all the more.
32:03Males fight to win a mate.
32:05These two are just sparring for practice.
32:22For the cubs, it's a spectator sport.
32:36Being social has its advantages.
32:39The more practice you get, the better your chances when it's time for the real fighting.
32:54Though when they feel crowded, big males are known to attack cubs.
33:03Nursing keeps mothers young from wandering off and getting into trouble.
33:09Unless trouble follows them.
33:18Ice bear has been tailing the mother for weeks.
33:31Challenging him to leave would take energy.
33:37But so does corralling her cubs.
33:53Then a milestone.
34:00Boy cub draws away.
34:14Independence is a rite of passage.
34:18But ice bear may turn aggressive.
34:23Mother levels a warning.
34:35But boy cub has tasted something irresistible.
34:59It's a costly game of cat and mouse.
35:06The calories the cubs are burning come from mom's milk.
35:14This has got to stop.
35:30Some teenagers are a bad influence.
35:33This one is worse.
35:38A distraction that's blinded mom to a deadly visitor.
35:47A wolf.
35:53Where there's one wolf, there could be a pack.
36:19Ice bear is on his own.
36:32They're lucky.
36:33The wolf is as well.
36:38But in the confusion, ice bear loses track of the others.
36:43He's turned to food and family.
37:00Mother's journey isn't over.
37:05Here on the coast, they're exposed to threats.
37:11But at least they'll be safety in the cover of the forest.
37:26Their exile is taking them deeper still, into a world even stranger to them.
37:43Nobody knows much about the time mothers and cubs spend hidden in the woods.
37:55That is about to change.
38:19These aren't hunters.
38:22And their ammo is just a tranquilizer.
38:28They believe the Hudson Bay bears could be a bellwether for the entire species, pioneers of the warming world.
38:38These bears spend so much time on land already, if they can't adapt to the longer summers, other populations don't stand a chance.
38:51They fit mom with a video camera.
39:10As she wakes up, a unique home movie begins rolling.
39:19In two weeks, the camera will pop off and the researchers can get their first glimpse from a polar bear's point of view.
39:31It offers a remarkable revelation.
39:35The bears have a sweet tooth for berries.
39:41It makes no sense.
39:46Berries have no fat, no apparent nutritional value for them.
39:51And foraging takes a lot of energy.
39:59Maybe it's a throwback.
40:01Terrestrial bears, like grizzlies, are big on berries.
40:06Living on land may be driving the polar bears to revert to their evolutionary roots.
40:14A desperate strategy.
40:24November.
40:31Just a generation ago, Hudson Bay would have been frozen by now.
40:41Ice Bear's first summer alone should be over, but he's trapped on land, in limbo.
40:57Following his instincts, he heads northwest, where the sea freezes earliest.
41:09The snow along his way is just a tease.
41:19He's not alone.
41:50By this point in the season, sparring partners have squared off many times in mock battles.
42:00They've come to know who's their measure, who's a menace, and when it's time to walk away.
42:13If Ice Bear is going to someday compete for a mate, he's got to find someone his own size to spar with.
42:23He's searched for food, for haven, for company, in vain.
42:43Now, the season delivers the ultimate insult.
43:12The route he follows was blazed thousands of years ago.
43:20Before tourists.
43:26Before cameras.
43:31Before the summer got so damned long.
43:41He's curious, too.
43:43He gets to visit the human zoo.
43:56Business is booming.
43:59This season lasts longer than ever, since the bears are stuck here an extra month.
44:14Polar bears are crossing paths with our world more and more.
44:20The encounter can get ugly.
44:30Dogs, like wolves, are ancient enemies of bears.
44:35But this time, it's the pack that's at risk.
44:41The bear that's approaching could not be more hungry.
45:01The Ice Bear could easily kill a dog.
45:17Instead, an extraordinary turn.
45:27That a bear wants companionship with dogs is a strange sign of the times.
45:39No less bizarre than that he would need to wait for winter, so long overdue.
46:02For the Ice Bear, company may be a consolation.
46:08But it's not the answer.
46:39The ice is finally beginning to beckon.
46:53Come December, the waters roil.
47:06On the banks of Hudson Bay, the weary gather.
47:15The Ice Bear has finally found his way to others his age.
47:24If they're going to compete for females, they have to learn to spar.
47:30And this is their last fleeting chance.
47:51The last chance Ice Bear now seizes.
48:21A bond and rivalry forged on land may last them years on the ice.
48:50Finally, the sea turns from black to white.
49:08The Ice Bear has survived one of the longest summers on record.
49:13Merely six months on land.
49:23His homecoming is at bay once again in tune.
49:29Next year, the summer may be longer than ever.
49:34The ice may get even shorter.
49:40But for now, the Ice Bear is home.