Science

It took 117 hours to capture this polar bear photo

Wildlife photographer Daisy Gilardini explains how she landed these ‘priceless’ photos

Remote and starkly beautiful, Wapusk National Park, at the northeastern edge of Manitoba, is home to Arctic foxes, caribou, and most famously, polar bears. (The word “Wapusk” means “white bear” in Cree.) It was here that professional wildlife photographer Daisy Gilardini came to capture the animals on film, and found a rare moment: a young cub of about four months old hitching a ride on its mother’s back end. It’s a peaceful, even funny, scene—which belies the gruelling conditions under which it was shot.

Gilardini, who’s originally from Switzerland and now lives in B.C., waited an incredible 117 hours to take these pictures. It was nearly two weeks of waiting in the freezing cold, outside a snowy polar bear den.

For Gilardini, who endured winds gusting up to 70km/h, capturing such a rare moment was worth the tough conditions—she called it “priceless.”

A Polar bear cub hitches a ride on mama's bum at Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada. The four-month-old cheeky baby bear must have had some tired paws as it opted for a beary-back-ride instead of walking during what was one of its first trips out of the den. Polar bear cubs and their mum usually spend the first three months of their lives in a den. The two had only just come out into the wild and were presumably foraging for food to hunt. (DAISY GILARDINI/CATERS NEWS)

A Polar bear cub hitches a ride on mama’s bum at Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada. The four-month-old cheeky baby bear must have had some tired paws as it opted for a beary-back-ride instead of walking during what was one of its first trips out of the den. Polar bear cubs and their mum usually spend the first three months of their lives in a den. The two had only just come out into the wild and were presumably foraging for food to hunt. (DAISY GILARDINI/CATERS NEWS)

(DAISY GILARDINI/CATERS NEWS)

(DAISY GILARDINI/CATERS NEWS)

(DAISY GILARDINI/CATERS NEWS)

(DAISY GILARDINI/CATERS NEWS)

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