Peek-a-bear! Cute cub sticks his head through the snow while playing in Alaskan wilderness

This curious cub was not going to let something as basic as a mound of snow stand in the way of his exploring, and dived through – nose first.

The polar bear, born earlier this year, was spotted playing peek-a-boo with another cub at the edge of a snow bank on Bernard Spit, a barrier island off the northeast coast of Alaska.

The fluffy discoverer and other members of its family in the Alaskan Arctic have had their lives over the past few months documented on camera.

Photographer Steven Kazlowski, 45, from the Pacific Northwest, spends four to six months a year photographing in Alaska, capturing the real life of the region’s polar bears.

This collection of images heavily features mothers and their young cubs, and was taken along the coast in the eastern Alaskan arctic, from early September through October 2014.

Steven, said: ‘I work with my Inupiaq friend Melvin Jack Kayotuk of Akook Arctic Adventures to photograph and take people out to see and experience polar bears.

In November 2014, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and Environment Canada found a key polar bear population fell by nearly half in the past decade

Scientists are seeing a dramatic increase in young cubs starving and ᴅʏing, with researchers blaming shrinking sea ice from global warming for the rise in ᴅᴇᴀтнs.

While the bears Steven spotted appeared happy and healthy – this news means up-close polar bear-sighting may become an increasingly rare occurrence.

Some of the images were taken just off the village of Kaktovik, Barter Island, some along Bernard Spit, a barrier island, and some in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

‘These bears are part of the southern Beaufort Sea population of bears,’ Steven added.

‘In terms of weather conditions, it was windy on and off, and winds could be up to 40-50 mph with temperatures in the low 20Fs (-7C).

‘Globally it is rare to get images of polar bears but in the area I work in, at a certain time of the year, it is quite common.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2871706/Peek-bear-Cute-cub-sticks-head-snow-playing-Alaskan-wilderness.html