Take a Journey to the Top of World with its Largest Land Predator!

Lumbering, rolling, and frolicking over the arctic sea ice is the world’s largest land predator. With translucent fur, webbed feet, and weighing in at over a thousand pounds, these creatures have fascinated us since we first laid eyes on them. So, we’re traveling to the top of the world with a few storytellers who show us a different side of the famous bears of the north: the polar bear!

These amazing creatures have a unique spot in all of our hearts. But when’s the last time you sat down to truly celebrate them? If I’m being honest, for me, it had been a while. I’ve found it difficult to learn about these magnificent creatures when every story I hear about them leaves me more upset than when I started.

But after watching the video I’m sharing in this article, I started wondering: if we celebrated more of what makes these creatures so wonderful, in place of talking about them like they’re already gone, would that impact their survival rates?

So, grab your parka. We’re heading to the frozen land of Svalbard—a place where temperatures stay below -20 degrees celsius (-4F) for days on end—to experience the otherworldly landscape of the Arctic, where some of the worlds most magnificent creatures are rolling about!

Okay, okay, now I know you just saw a photo of a polar bear and that probably gives you mixed feelings. We’re used to seeing them as the poster child for the melting arctic. But they are still here and magnificent! And we’ll get people to work towards saving them if we take time to celebrate their majesty. So, let’s put any sadness on the shelf for the next 15 minutes, alright?

To get you in the mood before we watch this beautiful video, here are some rapid-fire polar bear facts that I think are awesome:

• They are considered to be a marine mammal, which makes them the only bear to be given this title. Other than totally cool, this is also a superb bragging point, if you ask me.

Okay, are you hyped to find one of these optical illusions of the north in the wild, yet? Or what?

Don’t worry, we’re in trusted hands. Abraham Joffe, Dom West, and Joshua Holko are super talented filmmakers and photographers, and judging by their Instagrams (which I have linked in each of their names), they’re quite experienced on the whole adventure front.

So, that means you and I don’t need to actually go out and purchase our big boots and coats, and jump on our snowmobiles and spend a week getting frostbitten in the Arctic to see these royal creatures. Nah—we can sit right here with our space heater blowing on our faces and enjoy the ride. Here we go!

I highly suggest making the video full screen. The visuals are absolutely breathtaking!

How stunning was that? Apparently, during their expedition, they encountered 7 individual bears total!  If you have an Instagram, you really need to go follow all of those creators, including Untitled Film Works. They really do a wonderful job sharing the stories of their experience outside of the finished product and it’s a joy to explore!

If you are feeling compelled to help the polar bears keep being the majestic emblems of the north, you can actually adopt a polar bear for a few dollars a month through the World Wildlife Fund!

And if you’d like to learn a little more about what life’s like for the polar bear… this video from National Geographic has baby cubs in it!

It’s another super rewarding bear hunt (not the bad kind) that, because of storytellers, we get to enjoy.

Find more videos from the beloved publication, National Geographic, by clicking here!

The Power in the Story

We are storytelling animals. ³ Stories have been the fuel to our success as a species, for with each tale, a lesson is passed on. We learn where the best berries are, how to move forward with our careers, what to avoid, and expand our view of the world with every journey through our imagination we go on. The more stories we hear, the knowledge we can access, and the better we’ve been able to survive.

But when the story we keep hearing constantly makes our stomachs turn, we begin to avoid it. That’s a problem.

How can we help polar bears survive when we’re continuously avoiding them due to the negative feelings we’ve associated with them? My question is: if we step back to celebrate them, to learn more about what makes them so awesome, will more of the pieces begin to fall into place? Will more people be able to pay attention? To feel that they can actually make a difference in saving these creatures?

Storytellers, like the fellows who brought us along on the journey to the arctic, are the key to this. By capturing their amazing adventures with these noble creatures, they show us a world most of us will never see in person. Not to mention, bring us up close and personal with a creature that even fewer will find face-to-face in the wild—giving us a chance to look past the stories on the news for ourselves.

While most of us can’t physically travel the world, it’s amazing that we still can.

Filmmakers and photographers are traveling the globe to show the rest of us what’s out there. They encounter brutal environments and too many failed shoots to count, just to capture the stories unfolding around the world. And the way they share their content has a ripple effect on policies and laws that go into protecting their subjects.

All you have to do is take a look at the following articles to see how other filmmakers helping the people and animals they love!

We rely on filmmakers and writers to capture bits and pieces of the world to show us what’s happening out there. For with every story they bring to our screens, the more we’re able to keep growing.

As always, stay open to new possibilities!

• Sam

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” —Albert Einstein