Screaming the young cub searches in one direction then another She sees lots of adult females but none is her mother The cub runs away screaming even louder Whether orphaned or lost the cub is among strangers most much bigger than she is
It’s early October The polar bears have spent the summer on Wrangel Island far north of Russia in the Arctic Ocean trapped because the drifting pack ice they roam has melted They must wait for the patchwork quilt of ice to return so they can hunt for seals and whales from these floating life rafts
But this summer has been warmer than usual The polar bears crowd together on a spit of land stretching out into the sea and wait for the ice that is late in coming The young cub roams among them searching for her mother
