Killer Whales Surround a Polar Bear and Her Three Cubs | Full Documentary

These cubs were born to walk on ice. Right now three of them are trapped at the edge of black open water and out of that water rise the tall black fins of killer whales. Their mother roars them back from the edge into the middle of the flow and plants herself between her cubs and the water. Because the solid ice they were born on has shattered into scattered flows with cold sea between them. To reach real ice they'll have to swim it and the smallest can barely stay afloat. On the ice ahead waits a huge male bear deadly to cubs and any day a storm can turn that black wall into walls of ice cold waves. This is Atka and three cubs and the road that turned to sea. For years this ice held solid all year round. Now it cracks apart and drifts and between the pieces lies open water too wide to walk. Even the flow under Atka is crumbling into the sea. She looks out past the black water to a thin white line on the horizon solid ice far off. The cubs lean over the edge and meet their road for the first time. It's water. Old Siku throws himself in chest first and swims strong. Steady Neela paddles evenly right at her mother's flank but little Tunu thrashes sinking a little lower with every stroke. Atka swings her broad back against him holding and on the far side hauls him out by the scruff. Nearly half of all cubs don't survive these forced swims. They drag out shivering soaked onto a scrap of ice and Tunu shakes hardest of all his wet fur flat against his ribs. Far off a single black fin cuts the water. There's no staying. She leads them back to the edge to swim again. They cross to the next flow and the next swim climb out swim again. Every crossing Tunu falls further behind his chin dipping under. They haul out shaking barely dry before the water calls again. Then four black fins surface circling the open water. Atka drives the cubs back from the edge and stands over them in the center while the fins circle the flow. The killer whales don't attack but they've come to water that was never opened before and their presence alone pushes the family off the sea. When they slide away she noses Tunu back toward the edge. On the next flow waits a full-grown male 900 pounds and deadly to cubs. Atka backs water shoving the three behind her chest then rears up out of the sea roaring in his face and turns and swims her cubs the other way fast. They cross an immense stretch with no ice inside at all and a walrus erupts up in front of them tusks streaming. Atka lunges snapping at the snout and drives him off. She hauls the cubs out by their scruffs onto the ice. Ahead lies the widest gap yet to that thin white line of solid ice. To the north a storm rolls in over the sea. Atka looks from that impossible distance down to her weakest cub. There's no way around just black water all the way to the far eyes and the flow under them is dissolving into the sea. So Atka slides in and the cubs follow into the longest swim of all. Siku and Nila push on strong side by side but Tunu falls behind thrashing sinking freezing and behind them the black fins rise again. Atka, Siku and Nila drive for the far ice with everything left but Tunu tips his nose to the sky and his paws go still. The water is too wide and too cold for the smallest. She treads the empty water alone spent the road that turned to sea doesn't kill with teeth it kills with cold and distance and the black water closes over as if nothing had been there at all. She pushes Siku and Nila up onto the solid ice the ice they swam so far to reach and drags her own body out chest heaving then stands at the edge staring back at the black water and the storm hits waves smashing the ice freezing spray in the wind. She herds the two cubs behind a wall of ridged ice and covers their shivering bodies with her own. The killer whales slip away into the storm all night the wind screams and the black waves batter the ice and three white shapes hold together against the ridge the largest covering the two. By dawn the sea finally calms they're on it at last solid old ice a piece of the road that still holds. Atka licks the survivors dry warm and whole again here on ground that doesn't melt she can finally hunt she lies by a seal's breathing hole and waits then strikes one explosive blow into the ice and for the first time in the whole crossing they eat their fill Siku and Nila fill back out striding strong across the ice. Nila keeps tight to her mother's leg shoulder to shoulder their thick furs dry again doing what it was built for. Atka drops flat beside another hole and Nila comes to watch and copies her exactly chin down still as the ice the lesson passes on they walk on away from the open water deeper onto the solid ice behind them the black sea took one ahead the white road that still holds. Siku strides bold at his mother's flank everything the water tried to take back in him. Atka scans the ice unbroken to the horizon and the three of them stand together shadows long in the light then she leads them on toward the far ridges and the hunting beyond. Siku swats his sister loose and playful fully recovered and Atka walks on never looking back the two hurry to her flank out across an endless white plain under a pale clear sky three small white shapes crossing the last of the solid ice they swam the road that turned to sea and while a piece of it still holds they walk it on