To the Arctic Page #2

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slowing down the herd.

This water is so cold it can stop your heart.

We've gotta get across fast.

The caribou moms

are traveling hundreds of miles...

...to get to the coastal plain of Alaska...

...which is the safest place to give birth.

This year the migration

is about three weeks late...

...so some of the caribou mothers

have to give birth along the way.

Some of these calves are just a week...

...or two old, and they're easy pickings

for bears and wolves.

We're seeing a lot of calves get separated

from their mothers.

A lot of them don't survive.

The caribou finally reach their goal.

This is the place where the calves

have their best chance to survive.

But just a few days after they give birth,

the botflies hatch.

These bugs are potentially deadly

to these caribou.

They can burrow up their noses,

lay their eggs there...

...and they can set off stampedes.

It's why caribou head for the high country:

to get away.

are having a tough time as the Arctic warms.

But polar bear mothers face

an even greater struggle.

To learn more about polar bears...

...a team of naturalists and filmmakers

gathered on Svalbard island...

...in Norway.

They signed on with a seasoned captain

and headed north.

My name is Bjorne Kvernmo...

...and I'm captain of this ship.

...and most of them are camera-shy.

To photograph these reluctant film stars...

...John Downer uses

clever robotic cameras...

...camouflaged in white.

The bears were curious

about the remote cameras.

One bear was especially helpful.

It's hard to keep up

when you're only 3 months old.

They all wanted to know

what made the cameras tick.

Next year we're coming back

with stronger cases.

Bears nearly always avoid people...

...which made filming them

next to impossible.

Then the team got lucky.

They found a mom with two cubs,

about 7 months old.

For five days, she never left their boat.

Because the sun never sets in the summer...

...bedtime is anytime.

we saw what a tough job this mother faces...

...protecting her babies

from male polar bears.

Hungry males prefer seals...

...but in a pinch, they have always

gone after defenseless cubs.

Even a half-ton male can be sneaky

when he's on the prowl.

The mother seemed to pick up

the scent of a male.

But we couldn't see him.

We didn't know why she was agitated.

We finally spotted a male quite a ways off...

...zeroing in on the mother and her cubs.

Now that seals are so hard to catch,

starving males...

...might be targeting cubs more often.

Before he got close, the male lost the scent.

But next time...

...things could be much different.

the mother everywhere, step-for-step.

But the female was more inquisitive.

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