Ice Bear with Babes in the Fog

We were stuck in the pack ice in the fog in a deep bay. Distance and size of objects gets very distorted in this kind of light especially at high latitudes. After observing two different adult bears on the ice in quite close proximity to each other, we eventually spotted a mother and two small cubs some distance off but heading in their direction. We watched for a few hours as she made her way towards the others; her little ones trailed along behind, one in particular who was the daydreaming type and had to constantly be waited for. Watching how the little ones mimicked the mother’s every move, learning to hunt and to observe….we were mesmerized. We waited however with a sense of dread as normally male adults will eat cubs and there were two up ahead. In the end, calm prevailed and we speculated that perhaps the adults were the grown cubs of the same mother. It seemed to be the only plausible explanation for there being no confrontation.