(WlND HOWLlNG)
NARRATOR: Far beyond the world we humans know,
there is a remote and ancient kingdom.
To most of us, it seems a frozen wasteland.
But to creatures designed for astonishing cold,
it"s always been a paradise on Earth.
Snuggled deep in this protective ice, one little life is just beginning.
(SNlFFlNG)
For weeks she"s lived in darkness.
Staring at the circle of light above her.
What lies beyond it?
Curiosity leads her to peek into the light for the first time.
""Nanu,"" she might be called in the north. ""Little polar bear.""
The world outside is a blanket of white unfolding before her.
lt is a majestic place unlike any other on Earth.
A vast kingdom at the very top of our world.
A kingdom of ice.
There's another youngster exploring for the first time.
She sees a blue world of ice water.
(BARKlNG)
Seela is a walrus pup, only hours old,
but like the young bear, eager to discover the world around her.
Like all newborns, they have much to learn.
They're children of the Arctic,
their lives cradled by the ice around them.
But their world is changing.
And they will face challenges never before encountered by their species.
Their adventures begin today.
NARRATOR: lt all begins one spring on this snow-covered mountain.
Nanu's mother has had enough of her cramped cave.
She's remained in the birthing den for six months without eating or drinking.
ln the dark of winter, she produced twins,
Nanu and her brother.
(CUB CRYlNG)
lt's 20 degrees below zero today. Piercing cold.
Perfect for a polar bear.
Nanu"s a little hesitant to leave the den.
(SNUFFLlNG LOUDLY)
But when your mother is a polar bear and she calls you, you'd best be going.
(CUBS YELPlNG PLAYFULLY)
Nanu is feisty.
Her brother, a little timid.
(NANU ROARlNG)
She's ready to play anytime.
(YELPlNG)
Hey! Hole in one!
There are more serious days to come.
Survival is so demanding here
that Nanu and her brother will need three years of basic training.
But just waking up is enough for one day.
Polar bear boot camp starts tomorrow.
(CUBS WAlLlNG)
From Snow Mountain, the ocean surtace for 30 miles out is frozen
into a hard sheet of ice.
Just beyond lies the world of Seela"s birth.
A maze of ice floes that serves as a protected nursery.
Here, a walrus mother can lavish care on her newborn pup.
Using their sensitive whiskers, they memorize each other's face for life.
That's right.
Those sweet 'staches aren't just for style.
(GRUNTlNG)
But Seela has a second face to learn.
Another female has been waiting to hear those first barks.
(SNORTS)
She'll act as an aunt and fierce protector
until Seela is old enough to face the world on her own.
lt's a three-year commitment,
starting now.
The first skill to master is getting out of the water.
lf Seela fails, she'll get too cold and drown.
As Auntie keeps watch for predators,
Seela's mother patiently shows her how.
Problem is,
practicing somersaults is much more fun.
Her mother can urge her 80-pound infant along.
(BARKS)
But Seela's got to master the heavy lifting on her own.
(WALRUSES BARKlNG)
(BARKlNG)
lt's gonna be a long three years with this little handful.
(GRUNTS)
Auntie must wonder what she signed up for.
(GROANlNG)
On Snow Mountain, Nanu's brother is delaying the start of a family trip.
(CUB CRYlNG)
He still hasn't quite mastered that hole.
Nanu's mother can't wait any longer. She's starving.
Her only hope for finding food is to venture down onto the frozen ocean,
her age-old hunting grounds.
And so they begin the wandering life of polar bears,
leaving behind their birthplace
for unknown adventures ahead.
They soon pick up a little tagalong.
Nanu's mother finds a worrisome sign,
tracks left by the only animal in the ice kingdom that can threaten her.
(SNlFFlNG)
A male polar bear.
(GROWLS)
She knows that, given the chance, he might attack her cubs.
(ROARlNG)
(SNARLlNG)
(CUBS CRYlNG)
(ROARlNG)
(CUBS WHlNlNG)
But the male bear is more interested in something else.
He's caught a scent on the wind, miles away.
Newborn walrus.
At first glance, Seela looks like easy pickings.
(ROARlNG)
Auntie senses danger.
(ROARlNG)
(BARKlNG)
(GROWLlNG)
As the bear gains on them, Auntie races to block him.
(ROARlNG)
The bear is powertul, all right, but he weighs half as much as Auntie
and he has no leverage in the water.
He withdraws, for now.
(BARKlNG)
Seela is luckier than she"ll ever know.
A female walrus doesn't give birth very often.
So Seela is treasured, not only by her mother and aunt,
but by the whole herd.
(ALL GROWLlNG)
And they're not just a group, but a close family.
A really close family.
All on top of each other, all up in each other's business.
Cousins, grandmothers, grandfathers.
And what family doesn't have a scary uncle?
(ROARlNG)
(BARKlNG)
Not far off, a distant cousin of the walrus heads for the surtace.
A ringed seal maintains several breathing holes throughout the ice field.
Her private portals between sea and air.
Trouble is, she never knows what ferocious predator
might be waiting at the surtace.
(SNlFFlNG)
She can handle a gull stare-down,
but the ringed seal is the favorite food of polar bears.
(GROWLlNG)
ln fact, that's what Nanu"s mother is hunting right now,
(CRYlNG)
followed by Nanu and her little brother,
and their foxy little friend.
The ringed seal has one great ally against the bear, the ice.
She can sneak into a cave hidden under the hard surtace snow
and hope that the bear can't find her.
Unluckily for the seal,
Nanu"s mother can smell through three feet of snow.
(POLAR BEAR SNlFFlNG)
lt's like playing hide-and-seek with someone with x-ray vision.
(ROARlNG)
(lCE CRACKlNG)
(ROARlNG)
Nanu will soon learn
it's not that easy to get a meal in the ice kingdom.
The prey escapes 1 9 times for every one success.
But you can't give up when you've got babies to feed.
A first meal in six months sustains the mother
and becomes milk for her cubs.
(BARKlNG)
And for the clever tagalong, leftovers.
Unlike the mother bear, a walrus seldom hunts alone.
(ROARlNG)
When one gets hungry,
the whole herd does.
That's just how they roll.
This is Seela's first hunt,
and she"ll need stamina, because it will last for three straight days.
They work as a team looking for remembered landmarks.
You'd think something as large and in charge as a walrus
would take on something fierce.
This is the battleground.
And the prey?
A clam.
Each walrus can eat 4,000 clams per meal.
lt'll take Seela years to master the walrus way of clamming.
Snuffling them out with whiskers,
blasting them open with a snort, and sucking the meat out.
But first, you've got to catch the slippery little suckers!
ln the chaos, some neighbors run.
Some even fly.
The herd never gets every clam.
Those left behind will replenish the clam bed
for the herd's return in five years.
(WALRUSES GRUNTlNG)
After three days of feasting on clams,
the herd's tendency to do everything together extends even to digestion.
(BELCHlNG)
Someone starts a game of pull-my-flipper,
and before you know it...
(FARTS)
(BELCHlNG)
(FARTlNG)
(GROANS)
(WALRUSES FARTlNG)
(WALRUSES BELCHlNG)
(BELCHES)
By the end of spring,
Nanu's family and other bears in the ice kingdom have also feasted.
Seal hunts have filled their bellies.
ln the Arctic, a time of plenty is reason to celebrate.
(CRYlNG)
(WlND HOWLlNG)
ln the ancient rhythms of the north,
the days of abundance for Nanu and her family
end with the approach of summer.
A time of fasting for bears,
whose hunting grounds crack open in a brief season of warmth.
The 24-hour sun penetrates long-dark waters
and works its magic.
An explosion of life draws hungry sea creatures to the far north.
(ROARlNG)
Across the ages,
summer has always shrunk the ice fields for a short time.
But cold returns with autumn,
and the ice quickly reclaims the coast, then grows slowly seaward.
(GRUNTlNG)
Ready to break their summer fast,
Nanu and her family waited for their hunting grounds to reform
out on the frozen ocean,
(ROARlNG)
practicing for the seal hunts to come.
Their mother coaches them on technique.
And something else as well.
Pressing Nanu, she tries to instill a kind of toughness.
(ROARlNG DEFlANTLY)
A determination not to give in.
(BOTH ROARlNG)
Nanu seems to have what it takes.
Her brother lacks focus.
Finally, a sign.
Darker days herald the return of winter,
and with it, sea ice frozen solid enough to hunt on.
Just in time. Nanu and her family are hungry.
(YELPlNG)
But something is different this year.
The ice isn't hard at all.
(SNUFFLlNG)
This is not like any winter Mother Bear has seen before.
(ROARlNG)
They'll have to go back and wait for the ice to thicken.
And until it does, they'll remain hungry.
Seela's family is also looking for ice strong enough to hold them.
(ROARlNG)
(BARKlNG)
(GRUNTS)
Weeks pass.
What the animals of the ice kingdom can't know
is that their ancient ways of surviving are about to be tested.
The sea, and the air above it, are warmer than in the past.
The ice struggles to reform.
Finally, the ice returns here,
but three months late.
All seems normal again in the ice kingdom.
But there"s been too little snow to create a birthing cave,
so the ringed seal's pup is exposed on the ice,
in plain sight of her greatest enemy.
lt's a challenge as well for Nanu"s mother,
who specializes in catching hidden prey.
How is she going to surprise a seal that can see her coming?
(SQUEALlNG)
(ROARlNG)
(WATER SLOSHlNG)
(SNORTS)
Her charge is a complete failure.
Nanu reminds her mom how it's done.
"Yeah, thanks for the pointers, kiddo!"
(CAWlNG)
Mother Bear knows that birds flock to food,
(CAWlNG)
so they follow the birds.
There's a meal somewhere nearby.
But the only way to reach it is to pass right by its owner,
a male bear.
Driven by hunger, they take a tremendous risk.
(SNORTS)
(ROARlNG)
(YELPlNG)
They escape, but their hunger grows.
And now a fresh danger gathers.
(WlND HOWLlNG)
An Arctic blizzard.
Storm winds seem to blast with more fury than in the past,
slamming harder into coastal seas once shielded by solid ice.
(WALRUSES ROARlNG)
The herd heads to deeper waters to ride out the storm.
But at sea, they struggle to keep together,
battered by 1 5-foot swells.
A strong one separates Seela from the others.
(BARKlNG)
Her mother and aunt search desperately,
but she's nowhere in sight.
Cn land, the temperature drops to -40.
The wind reaches 80 miles per hour.
The storm is taking a toll.
Brother Bear is suffering.
For the first time in Nanu"s life, he's not right at her back.
(ROARlNG)
Their mother pleads with him to press on.
He tries to obey,
but hunger has made him too weak.
Nanu and her mother snuggle with him, sharing their warmth.
But as time passes, he drifts further away.
And then, he's gone.
Nanu and her mother stay at his side.
But finally, they must move on.
At sea, Mother and Auntie are still looking for Seela.
Beyond their range of vision,
she barely clings to life.
She can't last much longer.
Her strength fades,
along with the herd's hopes of finding her.
But mother and Auntie refuse to give up.
Following a strong current, they go farther than before,
(ROARS)
and manage to find what seemed lost forever.
A youngster who held out,
waiting for the two adults who always come for her.
(BARKlNG WEAKLY)
Two springs pass in the ice kingdom,
and through each, a strange music rises from below the ice.
(RESONANT CLANGlNG ECHOlNG)
(LOW RUMBLlNG)
(BARKS)
ln her second year, now showing off little tusks,
Seela's begun to notice the odd sounds.
(DEEP THRUMMlNG)
They're walrus love songs, produced in the throats of young males,
(THROATY GROWLS ECHOlNG)
and so complex in structure it takes years to perfect them.
(SlNGlNG)
Until they're worth listening to,
the ladies have got better things to do with their time.
(YAWNlNG LOUDLY)
(ROARlNG PLAYFULLY)
Nanu has grown as well.
At two years old, she's still dependent on her mother.
But a morning comes when her mother remains distant.
Changing conditions are forcing her mother
to do something earlier than usual.
Nanu sees something in her mother's eyes that she's never seen before.
One look tells her that life with her mother is over.
Mother Bear can no longer provide for them both.
ln order for them to survive, she must drive Nanu away.
(MOTHER BEAR ROARlNG)
(NANU WHlNlNG)
Leaving is the hardest thing Nanu has ever done.
But it's also hard for her mother.
(ROARS)
She can't protect her young one anymore,
nor even see how she fares.
She may never see her again.
And so, only in her second year,
Nanu embarks on a life all alone.
Well, not all alone.
(WATER TRlCKLlNG)
Earlier than expected, spring warmth envelops the Arctic.
The hunting grounds are flooded. There aren't any seals here.
So Nanu heads out beyond the ice she knows,
hoping to find something to eat.
Anything.
Thick-billed murres are new to her.
Hardly a mouthful apiece,
(ROARS)
but under the circumstances, worth investigating.
But as Nanu is about to discover,
there's something fishy about these birds.
Nanu hasn't got a chance.
What kind of bird flies through the ocean instead of the sky?
(SlNGlNG)
Then, something even more bizarre.
Creatures she"s never seen before.
(WHALES SlNGlNG)
(SQUEALlNG)
Nanu has come upon a herd of narwhals,
the unicorns of the sea.
Their ivory tusks, laced with nerve endings, are so sensitive
they're able to taste the air and the sea,
reading the temperature and weather.
Like a lost tribe of the Arctic, the narwhals roam the sea,
bearing silent witness to the changing times.
(lCE RUMBLlNG)
Never before has the Arctic ice broken up so early and so abruptly.
Hunting is impossible.
(lCE RUMBLlNG)
Unlike Nanu, Foxy can't swim.
Stymied by the melting ice, he'll have to say goodbye to his bear.
(YELPlNG)
Nanu faces her own crisis.
She"s never been stranded on shattered ice.
Never been so hungry.
Never been in circumstances where her mother's training
was no help at all.
Farther at sea,
the walrus herd clings to the few remaining ice rafts.
(WALRUSES BARKlNG)
ln the cramped conditions, tempers flare.
(WALRUSES SNARLlNG)
Seela has never experienced a bad ice year.
The adults have,
though never one this severe.
Finally, one walrus triggers a collective decision to abandon the shrinking ice.
They'll have to search for a new home.
They can't go to the shore near Snow Mountain,
because of the bears there.
So they take their chances in the open sea,
aiming for a distant island where they'll be safe.
They'll have to travel day and night on a week-long, 200-mile swim.
Back on the broken ice field,
Nanu"s whole world seems to be turning upside down.
(lCE RUMBLlNG)
Should she stay on the remnants of ice, where she can't find food?
Or follow the scent of prey out into the unknown sea?
Now is the time to be bold.
But not hasty.
(GRUNTlNG)
Driven by a fierce will to survive, she risks everything.
Finally, they reach a refuge far at sea,
(WALRUSES BARKlNG)
Rock lsland.
(ALL BARKlNG)
The herd is exhausted.
But before they can rest, they must find a place to haul out.
Seela is too tired to swim another inch.
But getting out could be a problem.
Climbing up steep rocks is even harder than crawling onto an ice floe.
(GRUNTlNG)
They'll have to lift 2,000 pounds of blubber,
using only the strength of their flippers.
Maybe they should have laid off some of those clams.
(BARKlNG)
(GROANlNG)
(WALRUSES GROANlNG lN EXHAUSTlON)
The herd's slumber might not be so deep
if they knew who had reached the island before them.
The male bear.
And where there"s a bear...
(YAWNlNG)
He"s a local fox, dressed in summer camouflage.
Cn Rock lsland, he doesn't really need leftovers.
There are more murre chicks than he can possibly eat.
(COOlNG)
There's nowhere to run.
(SQUAWKS)
And they're still too young to fly.
Caught between a fox and a hard place,
a murre father makes a remarkable request.
(SQUAWKlNG)
The leap of faith inspires the entire flock.
One youngster finds refuge in the sea.
Another, in the nick of time, on a rare raft of ice.
Nanu has paddled for days,
and grown so exhausted that she nearly drowned.
This tiny place to rest has saved her life.
(WALRUSES GRUNTlNG)
Cn Rock lsland, the summer sun generates a heat wave.
The temperature climbs well above freezing.
The warmth triggers an exasperating itch,
and an itch must be scratched, no matter where, no matter how.
Seela has an itch of her own,
(BARKlNG EXClTEDLY)
to escape the crush of her family, if only for a while.
Walruses aren't designed for mountain-climbing,
but she pushes on.
(GRUNTlNG)
Auntie sees Seela wandering off on her own
(ROARS)
and starts after her
as fast as her blubber will allow.
Suddenly, Seela disappears.
(ROARlNG)
When Auntie calls, she gets no response.
(AUNTlE ROARlNG)
Seela is strangely silent.
Her adventure has taken a terrifying turn.
A stumble has left her trapped on a narrow ledge.
And someone has spotted her.
(GROWLlNG)
The male polar bear moves closer to attack,
and Seela takes desperate action.
(BARKlNG)
She'll be sore,
but alive.
Now she races to warn the others.
(BARKlNG)
Auntie is the last one off the island.
Seela's mother finds her,
and Auntie joins them.
(BARKlNG)
The bear bides his time.
Seela and family retreat to another part of Rock lsland.
They join the other herds driven here by the vanishing Arctic ice.
The changing conditions have left many stranded and vulnerable,
and others desperate and hungry.
Nanu reaches the shallows of Rock lsland,
after a long week at sea.
(GROANlNG)
For a day now, she's been spurred on by the scent of prey on the wind.
But now that she's gotten a look at them,
she's not so confident.
These are no ringed seals.
Nothing in Nanu's experience tells her how to take on these big walruses.
The adults are three times her weight, armed with teeth like daggers.
Maybe she can find one weak enough or small enough to handle.
(ALL BARKlNG)
Hunger compels her forward, despite the odds.
(ALL ROARlNG)
But she's too young, and too small,
and they're being completely unaccommodating.
Her last chance seems to be no chance.
Nanu may have come all this way only to starve.
The old male bear, however, plans an attack from the sea,
and makes his move while the unsuspecting herd is napping.
(SNORlNG)
(BARKlNG SLEEPlLY)
The male bear approaches downwind.
He slips in undetected.
(BEAR GROWLlNG)
(WALRUSES ROARlNG)
Seela makes for the water behind her Auntie, but the bear grabs her.
(ROARlNG)
Auntie doesn't hesitate. She races back to save the youngster.
(AUNTlE ROARlNG)
(BOTH ROARlNG)
Her courage allows Seela to escape to the sea.
(BARKlNG)
ln an act of devotion, Auntie makes the ultimate sacrifice.
(BARKlNG)
Seela waits,
but Auntie will not return.
(SOBBlNG)
(GULLS CAWlNG)
(WHlNlNG)
Meanwhile, Nanu is growing weak.
Without food, she can't last much longer.
She knows the male is not in the habit of sharing,
and that he could easily kill her.
(ROARS)
But now is the time to call on the toughness her mother taught her.
(GRUNTS)
(NANU GROWLlNG)
(ROARlNG)
(ROARlNG DEFlANTLY)
(ROARS)
She refuses to give in.
He must share his kill or she will die.
(GROWLlNG)
And so she stands,
and keeps standing,
until he allows her to take what she needs.
A single death preserves the lives of many.
For the next four years, Nanu and Seela are driven to this rocky outpost
as the sea ice melts earlier and earlier.
The increasing warmth has made a demanding world more difficult,
disrupting the ancient rhythm of the seasons,
gradually dissolving the ice kingdom,
turning its rightful masters
into refugees.
All over the Arctic,
animals wait longer and longer for signs that the ice is returning.
At long last,
an old walrus in the herd catches the far-off scent of sea ice and cold.
lt's time to go home.
Nanu also returns to the ice kingdom of her birth.
ln the spring of her eighth year,
there"s an added excitement to being home.
Most of her life, she avoided male bears.
Now she finds herself drawn to one.
And so begins a communion as old as time,
but is of special importance in a disappearing world.
Later that year, driven by instinct and memory,
Nanu climbs Snow Mountain.
For the first time since she was a cub, she interrupts her life of roaming
and seeks out the warmth of a hidden den.
She disappears for the winter beneath a blanket of ice and snow.
(WALRUSES SlNGlNG)
Meanwhile, Seela's tusks have filled out nicely,
and the boys are taking notice.
(ROARlNG)
She knows what they're after.
(ROARlNG)
But Seela's got no time for just any old male.
She has standards,
unlike some other females she knows.
(WALRUSES SlNGlNG)
(GRUNTlNG)
Seela is holding out for something special.
When a male is, well, motivated,
he can sing for 50 hours straight.
(WALRUS SlNGlNG)
And one of these Romeos is still trying for Seela.
(BARKS QUlETLY)
Something about the pitch of his song finally moves her.
(BARKlNG)
Cn Snow Mountain, where she was born,
Nanu produces a miracle of the north.
(CUB COOlNG)
And she's got a brother.
With the arrival of spring, Seela delivers a miracle of her own.
(BARKlNG)
A new pup, a new mother.
A new Auntie.
All across this special place,
children of the Arctic make their way into the world
as they have for thousands of years.
Their fates are forever tied
to the shifting rhythms of the ice that defines them,
their lives wrapped in the blanket of cold
that keeps this kingdom theirs.
(CUBS WHlNlNG)
What will their children do if it disappears?
What will ours?
lf we change the way we live,
we can help save the lives of lots of people and animals all over the world.
lf you turn off the lights every time you leave a room,
it'll give all the animals in the Arctic a brighter future.
lf everyone replaced one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent,
it would be like taking one million cars off the road.
lf your mom and dad buy a hybrid car,
it'll make it easier for polar bears to get around.
lf you wash your clothes in cold water, you use 80 percent less energy
which keeps the water where the polar bears live from getting warmer.
lf you turn down the temperature in your home a little,
you can keep the temperature from rising where the Walruses live.
Drive less, carpool more. Take the bus.
When you don't have far to go, you can walk, bike, skate,
or if you're a walrus, you can swim.
lf you take two minutes less in the shower,
you can save enough water to fill up a swimming pool in a year.
lf you tell your parents to buy fresh food instead of frozen,
you'll help save energy and animals.
lf you can figure out how to make cheap, renewable energy,
you'll be saving the world.
That would be awesome.
Plant a tree.
Plant trees everywhere.
Plants lots of trees.
Plant millions of trees.
Ask your teachers about global warming.
What we do in our homes affects theirs.
We have to change the way we live.