44 Incredible Photos That Capture The True, Raw Reality Of Nature

Polar bears are built for the brutal Arctic cold, with generous fat reserves and thick coats designed to trap heat.

It’s incredibly useful when temperatures plunge below freezing, but a little overwhelming when things start to warm up. To keep cool, they do what comes naturally, which in this case is to belly flop into the snow.

One August evening, on a quiet stretch of riverbank, a mother and her cub materialized from the brush just eight feet away from our co-founder, Paul Nicklen.

She knew Paul was there, but paid him no attention, focusing instead on a large male upstream. For hours, Paul photographed them as she tried to teach her young one to fish, though the lesson wasn't sticking. The cub was far more interested in splashing through the shallows.

These are the same bears Alaskan wildlife officials have been shooting from helicopters. The controversial predator-control program has been in place since 2023, and the Alaskan government just renewed it for another season.

The Mulchatna caribou herd, once peaking near 200k animals in the 90s, fell to around 12k in 2019. The Alaskan government says predators are preventing their recovery, justifying the cull. We want the caribou to recover, but the state is going about it entirely the wrong way.