Christopher Paetkau's Image

A mother polar bear and her three cubs pause peacefully in the summer heat.

This type of scene is getting rarer.

The sun is high, the land wide and open.

The polar bears rest after their long journey north along the Hudson Bay coast in Canada.

Shrinking sea ice is making it harder for polar bears to hunt and find food to survive in summer.

This is a story of endurance and a fleeting moment of hope in a world where survival is anything but certain.