Little Polar Bears - Hardcover

Thorsten Milse, internationally renowned nature and wildlife photographer, can’t get enough of the polar bear cubs of Wapusk National Park in northern Canada. This series of photographs has enjoyed great international acclaim: Milse won the Grand Prize of the photography competition held by the esteemed American magazine Nature’s Best, and was named BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year. His photographs have appeared in magazines such as Nature’s Best, BBC Wildlife, Germany’s GEO and Denmark’s Illustreret Videnskab.

*Starred Review* There are few animals quite as appealing as a polar bear cub--black shoe-button eyes and nose in a fluffy white face, outsize paws--and noted wildlife photographer Milse is one of the best at capturing the first weeks of these little bears' lives after they leave their natal dens. Wapusk National Park, bordering Hudson Bay in Manitoba, encompasses most of the denning area for western Hudson Bay's polar bears, making it an ideal location for photographing female polar bears with their young cubs. Milse has photographed the cubs as they venture from the den for the first time, hesitantly peering out into the snow of February in the Arctic. Almost as white as the drifts, the cubs are seen negotiating snowbanks, nursing from their immense mothers, clambering on her sleeping form, and play fighting. A constant in each image is the vastness of the surrounding landscape, covered in wind-driven and sculpted snow with just a few small trees or shrubs to break the interplay of whites and shadows. The young bears appear infinitely suited to this open whiteness as they follow their mother to the hunting grounds and learn how to be adult polar bears. Milse's text describes the bears' journey, but it is the exquisite images that sell this book. Nancy Bent
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