Discovery Channel's Planet Earth series

[live love laugh]

Just saw a clip from Oprah. A beautiful family of polar bears emerge from their den beneath the snow--mother, two adorable cubs and father. Papa bear goes hunting for food. None have eaten for five months. The bear falls through the thin ice, melted from the heating planet. He swims for months without a catch. Tired and hungry, he finds a group of walruses and tries to catch one. They stab him with their tusks as they make their getaway. He dies.

:cry:

[begin_within]

1. I saw that too, it was heartbreaking. The whole episode of Oprah was amazing.

[live love laugh]

2. The bears were so beautiful. Seeing that bear die was heartbreaking. n/t

[TomInTib]

3. Well, that's life (and death). The Planet Earth series is phenominal.

The debut was last Sunday and it runs in eleven installments.

It is just beautiful.

[don954]

4. did you see it in HD?

I was watching it on Discovery-HD and i was blown away by the quality of the picture, it was like i could reach out and touch it...!

[live love laugh]

5. I didn't see it in HD but it was still breath taking. n/t

[EST]

6. Something ain't right, here.

First of all, there's no such thing as a "family" of polar bears. There may be a mother and one or two young, but any "papa" bear is only interested in fighting and sex and would kill and most likely eat the young, and very possibly the mother bear, as well.

Mother bears will attempt to find food for their young, but male bears are not interested.

Female bears normally don't eat for several months, sleeping the time away and feeding the young on rich milk, while growing skinnier as the fat she accumulated during the summer season converts to food for her offspring.

While I applaud a sympathetic treatment of endangered wildlife in order to focus on what we are doing to the environment, a too sympathetic treatment engenders ridicule and disbelief, causing even more harm.

[live love laugh]

8. The mother did feed her cubs from stored fat while in the den.

All four emerged from the same hole together into untrodden snow. The babies and mother stayed behind while one left for food. Maybe that "male" bear was a female? :shrug: It doesn't make sense. You should watch it. Have you?

[EST]

11. Although I have seen quite a number of documentaries

dealing with polar bears, and bears in general, I don't think I have seen that particular one. I will probably see that one soon.
  It generally takes two years for a young bear to mature enough to be self sufficient and it is not unheard of for the mother to produce additional young while still caring for another cub nearing adulthood.

I would suspect if there were two adults emerging from a winter den accompanied by new ones, one of the adults was actually the previous year's cub.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. It could have been the editing on Oprah that gave the impression of a family

In the programme itself, it's clear the male bear has no connection at all with the female and cubs (the male is in Canada, the female and cubs Svalbard, I think.

[lovuian]

7. Bush says we are not suppose to talk about the Bears

UnBearable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR9Ys-x0FO8

Guess Oprah didn't get the memo

[shraby]

9. Polar bears don't hibernate do they?

[EST]

10. What they do is very close to hibernation.

It is much deeper than estivation, which is what squirrels do, and the mother bear seldom rouses, although she can, with considerable effort.
Estivation allows animals to rouse fairly easily, particularly on warm days, although they may sleep, with dramatically lowered body temperatures and rarely moving, for days at a time.

[newyawker99]

13. This documentary is extraordinary! It continues tomorrow night.