The two shaggy polar bears gnawed on shreds of meat hanging off the carcass of a bowhead whale. They planted their flat furry feet on pieces of blubber and ripped off strips of the rubbery fat with their teeth.
Humans don't often see these luminous bears in the wild. They are not land animals, and live nearly all their lives on the vast floating sea ice within the Arctic Circle.
Soon they may not be seen at all. The top of the world is ground zero for global warming, the first part of Earth to show dramatic effects from the heating of the atmosphere and oceans. The bears' frozen habitat is rapidly shrinking.