Karate Kid

Location: Eastern Spitsbergen, Svalbard Polar bear are a very special animal to witness in the wild. Although extremely dangerous, they're also charmers as this shot depicts. On an eleven day voyage of Svalbard, I had the delight of witnessing an unbelievable twenty eight polar. The cub in this photograph was the bear we got the closest to.  We spotted her and her mother a few miles out while heading through eastern Spitsbergen. After resting our ship against the ice, the cub and her mother were drawn by our presence and started to make their way towards the ship. While the mother out of view in this shot lay down to rest, the cub decided to go on it’s own little venture and navigate towards us, jumping over and swimming between gaps in the fast ice. This shot captures the cub right before she was about to jump over a crack in the ice. As I reviewed my photo I realised I had caught the bear in a rather hilarious position. Almost looking to be practicing a form of martial arts as she c