Polar bears are some of the most iconic animals in the Arctic, but their lives remain something of a mystery.
Now incredible images has offered a glimpse of these majestic beings and their cubs for the first time.
A cute video shows the moment that three small polar bears came out of their cave with their mother on the remote island of Svalbard, Norway.
The incredible images took scientists almost ten years to catch and gives the first detailed view of this critical moment in the life of a polar bear.
Mothers polar bears make their caves deep under the snow in some of the most inaccessible parts of the Arctic.
With the help of a combination of satellite monitoring and external cameravalls, researchers have finally been able to study the parenting habits of these elusive animals.
While a warming climate puts pressure on polar bears mothers, the researchers say that these findings will be vital to protect their straps.
Main author Dr. Louise Archer, from the University of Toronto Scarborough, says: “Every lump that we have monitored had its own story, each data point contributes to our understanding of this crucial time and supports more effective conservation strategies.”
Polar bears are some of the most iconic animals in the Arctic, but their lives remain something of a mystery. Now, for the first time, incredible images have offered a look at these majestic beings and their cubs
With the help of a combination of satellite following and external camera traps, researchers have recorded Polar Bear Cubs first steps outside their cave
The remote Norwegian island of Svalbard is one of the northernmost permanently established areas in the world.
In addition to the 2,700 human inhabitants, the island is also the home of around 300 polar bears.
But because the caves are hidden so well, study how and when the cubs come up has proven extremely difficult.
Around November, pregnant polar bears will dig a deep cave in the snow in front of their cave.
Dan, around Christmas, the mother will give birth between one and three blind, hairless cubs with a weight of only 500 grams (one lb).
Nursing on their breast milk, which is 31 percent fat, the cubs grow fast and reach around 10 kg by the time they come out of the cave in the spring.
In this new study, researchers have 13 polar bears appropriate with satellite followers that also registered the surrounding temperature.
Within the cave it can be up to 25 ° C (45 ° F) than on the surface thanks to the body heat of the mother.
There are around 300 polar basin that live on Svalbard, that is almost one polar bear for every 10 people on the island
This study provides an essential insight into polar bears welten habits and reveals that cubs are extremely dependent on their mothers, but only five percent of the time are spotted separately
Pool bear rolls like these on Svalbard are extremely well hidden and are very difficult to study. However, researchers managed to follow 13 polar bear mothers on their caves using satellite collars
Researchers traveled to the remote Arctic Pole to set (depicted) automatic camera traps to record data at the first times that polar bears came out of their bears
Polar Bear mothers only come out of their caves for a few minutes to an hour per hour to stretch their legs. Although some would move their families to a new cave during the welling period
A cute video shows the moment that three small polar bears came out of their cave with their mother on the remote island of Svalbard, Norway
These camera traps made extremely rare recordings of polar bears welbing behavior, revealed exactly when they entered their fetches and when they came forward afterwards
So, by looking for when the polar bear stopped moving and getting warmer, the researchers were able to determine the exact moment they went into their cave.
Traveling by helicopter and skiing cross -country skiing, researchers put on a series of external camera traps to absorb the area around each of the caves.
Co-author Dr. Jon Aars, senior researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute, says: “Because the data from satellite radio collars were available for all mothers, the observation data made it possible to tell how changes in activity and temperature match behavior.”
In an extremely rare video, the researchers put a Polar Bear mother and her three cubs out of the cave for the first time.
The heart -warming images show that the mother is moving forward, with her cubs that quickly run through the chase.
One of the Cubs even seems to be playful on the back of his mother before being shuffled back to the ground.
Polar bears on Svalbard came out of the cave on March 9, but seemed to leave the den earlier than previously thought.
On average, Polar Bear mothers and their cubs spend 12 days hanging around the cave after they first hit their heads above the ground.
After coming out of them, polar bearswelpen will go their way to the sea ice where they will follow their mothers over the next two and a half years. This process is dangerous and it is too early from the pine being fatal
Cubbing is a critical period for polar bearswelpen and the researchers hope that their studies will help protect these incredible animals
However, this varied greatly between different Polar Bear families with some left after 31 days and others leave after just two.
After leaving the cave, polar bears go directly to the sea ice around the island, where they will live next to their mothers for two and a half years.
Cubs are extremely dependent on their mothers and are seen only five percent of the time separately.
But if they leave the cave too early, there is a chance that the Cubs will not be sufficiently developed to survive the hard environment.
Cubbing is the most dangerous period of the whole life of a polar bear, with less than 50 percent of all cubs that survive to adulthood.
In addition to cute, the images of the researchers are to better protect the conservationists in this critical period of polar bears.
Dr. Archer says: 'Polar Bear mothers have more and more problems that reproduce as a result of climate-controlled changes and will probably be confronted with the expansion of the human footprint in the North Pole area.
“We are pleased to introduce new tools to follow bears during this vulnerable time and to gain insight into their behavior in the North Pole area, so that we can work to protect cubs and therefore the species.”
