Hudson Bay, Canada
1996
Flip Nicklin

"Most [female polar bears] keep their young [such as the cub at the bottom in this picture] with them for two and a half years, but many Hudson Bay mothers wean their cubs a year earlier. That allows them to breed every two years instead of the usual three. Perhaps the large number of seals at Hudson Bay influences this fecundity. The abundance of seal carcasses left on the ice might make it possible for young bears to scavenge at an earlier age and become independent sooner."

(Text from "Polar Bears, Stalkers of the High Arctic," January 1998, National Geographic magazine)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Polar Bears, Stalkers of the High Arctic," January 1998, National Geographic magazine)

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