All language subtitles for BBC.Natural.World.S28E09.Polar.Bears.&.Grizzlies.Bears.on.Top.of.the.World.720p.x265-Eng

The Arctic - an icy ocean
on the top of the world.

Polar bears' lives
are getting harder.

The ice cap is shrinking.

But that's not the whole story.

Birds and animals are heading north
to take advantage
of this warming world.

Another bear is there, too -
the grizzly.

On the same shores,

there are families
from the two different worlds.

How will bears, brown and white,
rear their cubs in a changing
Arctic?

The ice of the Arctic Ocean
is skirted by tundra.

There are a few towns,

old hunting outposts
or new oil installations.

But man's main impact
is on the climate.

It's autumn.
The cold has come late this year.

After a good summer feeding,

a pregnant grizzly heads
for her den.

There's a tunnel leading to a
chamber dug in the frozen earth.

She'll live on her fat reserves
and won't re-emerge until spring.

She'll have her cubs
around Christmas - the solstice,

winter's low point.

BEAR SNORES

Grizzlies and polar bears
share this coast,

but with opposite perspectives.

One is at the start of the sea.

The other is at the end of the land.

Only pregnant polar bears
stay on land.

They find a place to settle
and let the snow cover them.

As soon as the sea freezes,
the rest of the polar bears set off.

Hibernation's out of the question.
This is the hunting season.

For the males
and mothers with yearlings,

darkness and blizzards
are everyday life.

The cubs of both bears
are born in December.

Polar bear cubs are tiny
compared to their mother.

She's the largest of all the bears.

But her cubs are no bigger
than a guinea pig.

Both polar bears and grizzlies
can have up to four cubs at a time.

But twins are more normal.

Polar bear mothers are thinner
than they used to be,

and cubs are less likely to survive.

One of these cubs
has a very short life.

The surviving twin
now has sole access

to the richest milk
in the whole bear family.

Scattered in the ice
are breathing holes.

Polar bears stand motionless for
days sometimes

waiting for a seal to pop up.

Underneath, in a cathedral of ice,
seals are wary.

ICE CREAKS

Nothing else could muster
the patience or tolerate the cold.

It was the cold, in fact,
that created polar bears.

They were born

out of climate change.

A few hundred thousand years ago,
this shore was a forest.

It wasn't so long ago
that there weren't any polar bears.

Only brown bears, like grizzlies.

Bears were the most successful
of the hunters,

mainly because
they weren't just hunters.

Bears can run and hunt. But like us,
they can eat what they find -

delicate morsels of seafood,
or roots and berries, or insects,

or anything to be scavenged,
like a washed-up whale.

To help find hidden food, a nose.

Bears have a better sense of smell
even than a bloodhound.

It's the most sensitive nose
in the world.

They became clever and powerful,

probably the largest predators
since the dinosaurs.

They were adaptable.
They could hunt anywhere.

Even underwater.

Then the climate changed.

The Ice Ages began
and the trees disappeared.

The landscape went from green
to brown to white.

As the cold drove other life south,
some bears stayed put.

Another world had formed around them

and they found
they could adapt to it.

These bears looked to the north,

where the frozen sea stretched out
like newly-created land.

Out on the sea were big,
blubbery prey fit for a bear.

Seals hunted fish under the ice
and emerged to breathe and rest.

These ice grizzlies changed.

They blended in. They got bigger.
They ate only meat.

They became polar bears.

Polar bears took to the cold.
They gave up hibernating.

They turned the seasons upside down
and hunted all winter.

Problem was,
the seals got better at escaping.

Bears are great opportunists
and they'll have a go
at almost anything.

This one has found
some beluga whales.

This one's trying
to bring down a walrus,

an animal four times his size.

But bearded and ringed seals alone
remained 95% of a polar bear's diet.

This is an animal of seals and ice.

10,000 years ago, the Ice Age ended,

but enough of the ice caps
stayed frozen

for polar bears to keep
their Ice Age lives.

As the Arctic now lurches into
an unnatural and untimely meltdown,

what will the polar bear mother face

as she emerges
into the new March sun?

The mother hasn't eaten properly
for nine months

and the cub has been draining
the last of her reserves.

She has to check for danger.

He may be the father. But that means
nothing to polar bears.

Or their cubs.

Bears occasionally eat each other
if they're hungry enough.

A cub's life is fragile.

Each year, fewer than
5,000 polar bear cubs emerge

and most die in their first year.

It takes a few weeks
of short practice walks

and then the two of them are ready
to head for the frozen ocean

and the seals.

Survival depends on the springtime
ice, having good hunting there

and avoiding other polar bears.

Some polar seals give birth
straight under the ice.

Bearded and ringed seal pups
need the solid ice to breathe,

suckle and sleep.

They can swim,
but they would soon die

if they had to stay in the water.

One of the tricks seals use
to outsmart polar bears

is to fashion dens for the pups that
can be reached only from underwater.

Polar bears, in turn, have learned
to recognise a very faint pup smell

seeping up through the ice.

The mother's nose
leads her to the den,

and all she needs to do
is break through.

All the pup or mother seal
needs to do

is dive and swim
to one of its other dens.

Not all is lost.

The cub is learning
something about hunting.

But the mother is racing the spring,
the growing seal pups
and the melting ice.

April, and the pole tilts
a little towards the sun.

Ice reflects sunlight away.

Land, though, absorbs the warmth.

Along the coast are grizzlies.

The grizzly mother and her two cubs
are a month behind their
white cousins.

These grizzlies are called
barren-ground brown bears.

They're descended from the ancient
brown bears that stayed on land.

They're not winter animals.

There's no point in leaving the den
until the spring thaw is under way.

Spring starts earlier.

The world's changing, and the
cubs should feel the benefit.

These snow geese are better off.

Millions of them fly up from
California to feed on the tundra.

Most years, they're flying earlier
and in greater numbers.

Other birds, bald eagles,
fight over fish taken from rivers
further north.

She's produced milk for them
for three months inside the den

and kept out the cold.

Now it's warmer
outside than inside.

Anyway, the grizzly cubs
need the freedom to move,

to run around and explore.

It's the first few weeks of
learning about their world.

When they're strong enough, she
takes them a little further afield.

The snow and ice melt,

and little streams
become raging rapids to a cub.

Grizzlies have claws like pitchforks

and the same subtle sense of smell
that helps polar bears find seals.

Through earth and ice,

a grizzly can sniff out insects,
plant bulbs, pine cones -

anything a grizzly can eat,
which is almost anything.

The grizzly's digging
creates insect and rodent refugees,

which a coyote is happy
to hang around for.

COYOTE HOWLS

For days at a time,
he'll follow the bear family,

profiting from
the grizzly's nose and claws.

It's as though the family
has acquired a friend.

The coyote's certainly no threat to
the cubs, but tree-climbing practice

is a good idea anyway, in case
of wolves or other grizzlies.

What a mother can't show,
they learn by trial...

and error.

There's a lot to learn.

A mother bear teaches by example,

and one of the hardest lessons
is catching ground squirrels.

The rodents are maddeningly quick

and have the ability to vanish from
one place and pop up in another.

If you ever see a grizzly
dancing on a hillside,

they're probably chasing
ground squirrels.

Finally the mother does what her
mother probably taught her to do,

corner the squirrel in its burrow
and quickly dig it out.

It's a lot of effort
for a mouthful of fur and bones,

but at least the cubs
are copying her,

chasing their own imaginary
ground squirrels.

The pole tilts
further towards the sun.

The days are longer, and it should
be peak hunting for polar bears.

Seal numbers may be down this
year, or they may have moved,

but pups have been hard to find.

Other bears can lead
the family to seals.

The mother has no instinct
toward sociability.

Those bears would kill the cub
before they'd share.

Big brothers don't even share
with each other if they can help it.

In the cold, clear air of the Arctic
spring, the mother bear can smell

everything that's happening,
even over the horizon.

The mother is focused on one smell.

A few seal pups are
hiding around here.

Gone.

It's important to find seals
and the cub is keen to help.

She breaks into another den
and watches another seal swim away.

Her mother taught her where to
find seals a generation ago,

but they are not there any more.

It can be frustrating.

At least the cub won't go hungry.

The mother will provide milk
for another year if she can.

She should average catching a seal
about once every five days.

A seal is a big meal,

much more than a grizzly can get,

grubbing for roots and dancing
around with ground squirrels.

It's time to move on,

and find another colony
less wary of polar bears.

They walk past Arctic islands
and icy coasts

in the constant search for seals.

He struggles to keep up.

A mother has to wait
if a cub gets a little footsore.

Throughout May, the days get longer,

and by June,
the sun never completely sets.

The ice breaks up around
the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay.

The seals have finished pupping.

It's late June, and the cub would
dwarf a grizzly of the same age.

They've had three months of hunting
and now it's over.

There's never been so much
ice-free water at this time of year.

In the endless summer days

birds such as guillemots
fly in to feed and court.

Polar bears aren't the only ones
affected by the rising temperatures.

The winners in the Arctic now,
generally, are the land animals.

Where there was white,
there's green.

Grass, bushes, even trees
are spreading north.

With summer grass come grazers -
caribou, also known as reindeer.

They should be benefiting.

But caribou are creatures of routine
and confused by change.

With time, they'll adapt.

Where their numbers increase,
wolves and bears should profit, too.

Caribou know
how to keep their distance.

It's easier to go back to
digging out ground squirrels.

The grazers everywhere
are feeding on new growth.

And if you can't eat them,
join them!

Bears can eat grass.

It's not very digestible.

The cubs try it,
but they need protein.

Down by the water are
limpets and barnacles.

This bear's mother showed her
and now she's showing her cubs.

They're like little family secrets.

There are opportunities when
the caribou are at a disadvantage,

wading through a freezing river,
for example.

The cubs aren't quite ready
for this lesson.

She'll save the river crossing
for next year.

The cubs, and the caribou, are safe.

It's back to the barnacles.

Beyond the shore,

many polar bears are far north,
deeper into the Arctic Ocean.

The ice cap has retreated
away from the land.

In midsummer, the distance between
the ice and the shore of northern
Canada used be about 50 miles.

Now it's over 200 miles.

Climate change has been happening
for 20 years,

and it's now a different world.

Some animals don't seem
to be bothered.

Narwhals prefer the broken ice.

And guillemots
can only live in open water.

It's hard for polar bears to catch
anything from a swimming start.

It's hard for polar bears to catch
anything from a swimming start.

Seals in the water
are much too fast,

yet frustratingly close.

Guillemots can fly after fish,
but there's a new problem.

Fishing boats can get in now too,
and have stolen the birds' food.

Commercial trawlers affect whales,
such as belugas, who also eat fish.

On the other hand,

there's less danger from polar
bears at their breathing holes.

Midsummer has passed, and polar
bears have to make a choice.

The cub needs a solid surface
for sleeping and suckling.

Should they head north to the
permanent ice or swim south to land?

Many biologists
believe they should be classed
as marine mammals, like seals.

Polar bears can close their nostrils
and have webbed paws.

Even cubs are at home in the water.

But how could they know how far it
is this year to solid ice, or land?

Most head south to land.

The marathon swims are testing
polar bears to the limit.

They face strong currents.

A bad storm, and they'll both drown.

Aerial surveys find
floating white corpses.

Cubs wash up on the Arctic shore,
dead.

Those that make it are now safe,
at least from drowning.

They're exhausted,
and they won't find much food here.

In the past, they wouldn't have
needed food.

It's summer,
the polar bears' off-season,

and they'd do
a summer version of hibernation,

sleeping, and living off their fat.

Sleeping hidden away was safer, too.

Most of the Arctic coast
is grizzly country.

Parts of Hudson Bay and Greenland
are the same latitude as Scotland,

but bleaker.

Here, hunger will drive them inland,

and be more like grizzlies in summer,
awake and trying to find food.

Trouble is, they appear to have
forgotten how to be like grizzlies.

She may know kelp is edible,
but she overlooks the shellfish.

It may help that food on the tundra
is increasing as the climate warms,

but will she find it?

The Arctic in summer
has always been rich,

thanks largely
to continuous daylight.

Now, though,
the permafrost is melting
and the land is even richer.

But the melting releases
millions of tons of carbon dioxide,

so the planet gets even warmer,

and the ice shrinks.

While polar bears need to branch out,

grizzlies do
what they've always done,

following traditions
passed down the generations.

At the end of a long hike

is a salmon river.

It's July and the fishing season.

Many bears have arrived early
to stake a claim.

Heading upstream to breed
are the salmon.

It's a dangerous place for
a mother to bring her cubs.

It's packed with hungry
and frustrated bears.

She needs to find a fishing spot,

but even the poorer places
are taken by the younger bears.

The cubs are bigger by now
and need a lot of milk.

If she has to fight for
a fishing spot, she'll fight.

The cubs are confused
and can't keep up.

Bigger grizzlies arrive.

Claws rip flesh. A mother
couldn't risk injuries like these.

So when life along the river
gets too violent,

she leads her cubs down the beach,

and gives them a lesson
in the peaceful and delicate art
of digging clams.

Clams are still good food,

and finding and opening them takes
just as much skill and education.

The intelligence of bears has been
a revelation to scientists.

Their memory, knowing when,
where and how to find food,

is very impressive.

By August, the fish have reached the
high lakes at the top of the rivers.

They've spawned
and are slowly dying and sinking.

Bears can swim well, of course,

but the bonanza of food lying on the
bottom rotting seems out of reach.

That is, if you assume
grizzly bears don't dive.

From the surface, it's
an impressive lesson for the cubs.

Diving for salmon
continues for a week or two,

until the fish get too rotten.

By now, it's early September,

the last days of summer.

Polar bears are wandering miles
inland in their search for food.

They haven't found much.

They missed the salmon season
because they didn't know about it.

It's a pity.

The mother would have been a match
for any of the grizzlies.

Polar bears in the summer are spread
out over impossibly vast distances.

It's hard for us to keep track
of what they're doing,

but it's certain many are travelling
further and looking for food.

It's much easier for grizzlies

with their well-worn paths
and their seasonal food.

August was salmon,
September is berries.

Right down to the Arctic Ocean
is a carpet of bushes,

bilberries, bog cranberries,

bunchberries, crowberries,
loganberries, cloudberries.

A grizzly can eat 14,000 a day.

Polar bears eat berries, too,

and it's at berrying time
that they're most likely to meet.

It was thought that the two bears
hardly ever saw each other,

much less had any closer contact.

It's certainly true that
mother bears would avoid each other.

As for the possibility
of a male of one species

and a female of the other mating
in the wild -

no, scientists thought it unlikely.

Bears are wary of each other.

There's no room for a mistake
like that in the wild.

There are some very pale grizzlies,

but that's always been considered
a normal colour variation.

Then, in 2006,
a hunter named James Martell

shot a white bear
with brown markings.

It seemed worth checking its DNA.

Its mother was a polar bear,
its dad a grizzly.

It has a name now, a Pizzly.

Or if you prefer, a Growler.

They can breed successfully with
either grizzlies or polar bears.

But cubs learn only
from their mothers.

There's little scope
for a halfway bear.

The polar bear nose
leads them both into trouble.

As far as she's concerned

she's found one of the best feeding
spots since coming ashore.

At night, people burn their rubbish,

partly in an effort
to keep the bears away.

The bears come anyway.

From hunting in a clean,
frozen world,

they now scavenge in a hellish
inferno of our own making.

Polar bears don't stop
at night raids on rubbish dumps.

People in Arctic towns
and oil installations

worry that bears are targeting
houses and even people.

The bigger towns put out bear traps.

A bear goes for the meat,
and ends up...

in bear jail.

It's kept in custody
until the sea freezes again.

For a mother and cub in this alien
and changing world,

staying out of trouble is
the hard part of finding food.

The grizzly family is coming
to the end of a good summer.

They're full and sleepy.

The cubs have done well
on their Arctic education

and try different foods
on their own now.

She'll slowly cut down
their milk supply.

These northerly grizzlies could
benefit from climate change,

with vast new territories
opening up.

But what opens up for bears
also opens up for us,

with our hunger for oil
and increasing need for farmland.

The land is being fenced

and these "dangerous" bears
are being driven out and killed.

If we want the land,

they are as helpless and
vulnerable as polar bears.

By mid-September, the polar bears
have made their way to the shore.

They're waiting
for the sea to freeze.

Soon the first autumn snows
make the landscape at least
look right for polar bears.

They gather at the places
where the sea freezes first.

The young males pass the time
play-fighting.

They're working out
who's the best fighter.

Later, on the ice,
defending food or females,

it helps to know
when to pick your fights.

The freshwater lakes freeze first.

The bears carefully test the ice.

Long before the sea freezes,
the grizzly family head home.

In the past five months,
the cubs have learnt grizzly
traditions from their mother.

It now guides them back
to their den.

Only pregnant polar bears
don't wait on the shore.

They lie down in the hills
and let the snow cover them.

In the past, when she
emerged with cubs in spring,
there would have been ice and seals,

but nothing seems certain any more.

The hills are soon
covered by a blanket of snow

with the bears
lying snugly under it.

Sleep is eking out calories
collected from seals and salmon
and berries and rubbish.

The polar bears on the shore wait.

It may be January
before the sea freezes.

For a cub that has
made it through so much,

it may be too late.

A mother who's lost her cub
has no choice but to start again.

Since the winter and the ice
have both been shrinking,
fewer cubs are surviving.

But some are.

He has survived,

perhaps in part
because he is a lone cub.

Eventually, the sea freezes.

The polar bears' world
reappears in midwinter...

..and the family head out
to hunt seals.

His story has really
only just begun.

And what happens next?

Who knows?

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