in April 2015 I met in Svalbard Capital
near the North Pole
with Oscar and Tom two awesome guys in
highly-trained polar bear specialists we
give up our snowmobiles and headed
towards the unknown it was minus 30
degrees centigrade I wore six layers of
special arctic suit because every inch
of exposed skin was aching I could hear
nothing but the hum of my snowmobile and
the thoughts in my head is this still
earth is this real it’s felt like I’m on
another planet and I sure did hope we
could find life out there with this
optimistic state of mind we entered the
blizzard I could see for no more than
twenty meters away and I think that what
scared me the most since our goal was to
spot and photograph polar bears in this
extreme environment so we went from one
frozen field to the next while climbing
mountains and huge glaciers covered with
snow along the way we’ve seen signs of
polar bears in the form of fresh seal
skeletons we knew they must be close but
we couldn’t find them luckily at this
time of the year the Sun doesn’t set at
all in Svalbard so we didn’t have to
make it to our destination before sunset
by the way if you do want to enjoy a
romantic sunset there you have to wait a
bit until late August later that sunny
night we have finally reached the
abandoned Russian town of pyramiden our
base for this expedition after a good
night’s sleep
we finally woke up and continued our
search now polar bears are hard to find
in the snowy white landscapes since the
Bears are well they’re white so we took
us some time and we finally found them
a big mama bear and her two adorable
young cubs only four months old they
were sleeping and we approached slowly
and carefully we waited for hours until
they finally woke up and it was quite a
sight although I’ve seen many polar
bears before that I have never been so
close to them on land my heart was
pounding the lousy little Cubs started
moving around vigorously waking up their
sleeping mom I guess the cub felt a
little guilty for that but he just can’t
be mad with such a sweet little thing as
I was photographing their young cubs I
noticed the mother leaned back and did
this kind of motion with her chest the
little baby bears climbed on top of her
and started breastfeeding I swear I was
so emotional a tear rolled down my cheek
so I did what any wildlife photographer
would do
I broke the frozen tear off threw it
away and continued shooting I’m a
wildlife photographer my mission is to
bring these stories and moments to you I
travel all over the world photographing
and documenting wildlife in their
natural habitat and today I’ll share
three of those stories with you
in 2012 I traveled to swell bird for the
first time Svalbard is in the region
archipelago located about two thousand
kilometres north of Norway and it’s
close to the North Pole as you could
imagine it is known as realm of polar
bears meeting them there was the
beginning of our romance too bad they
were seen from far away in 2014 I
returned to small about to take better
and hopefully closer images but this
time was different I could see the
change although I have been there at the
same time of the year ice had receded
polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt and
the birds we saw were thinner this time
the guide on the boat talked about
global warming and said the glacier
you’re looking at three kilometers away
that glacier has covered where we are
standing right now just twenty years ago
up until that point wildlife photography
was mostly about fun and adventure
but in that moment I realized there’s a
bigger picture here melting sea-ice and
climate change has dramatic effect on
polar bears
scientists believe that polar bears
would become extinct by the end of this
century and that 75% of them will
disappear by 2050 maybe even sooner I
wanted to make everyone fall in love
with the Arctic net inhabitants I wanted
to make a change in how we treat the
Arctic and for this I partnered up with
a specialist behind the bbc’s planet
earth and Frozen Planet I’ve arranged
for special permits by the governor of
Svalbard and had one of the best polar
bear guides with me it wasn’t a cheap
endeavor but I knew in order to achieve
my dream I had to get that unique short
polar bears are the largest land
predator the male’s reach over 700
kilograms and standing upright there are
4.2 meters high
that’s huge I’m 185 so it’s me on top of
myself and then I’m holding a keg of
beer on my head okay
the just enormous but look at them how
they just adorable
we have followed them for days and I was
shooting like crazy every behavior and
family moment mostly the little Cubs
playing perhaps they reminded me of my
own son’s survival of the small Cubs is
not taken for granted
since 75% of them won’t make it to the
age of 2 they are growing and they must
be well-fed the mother must hunt seals
as she didn’t have
to eat herself when she was four months
in the den breastfeeding her young cubs
their food is the ring teal HCl has a
network of 10 to 15 breathing holes and
it must breathe every eight minutes
otherwise it will drown mother bear
patiently awaits near those breathing
holes waiting to catch a seal and feed
her hungry Cubs but sadly things are not
easy for this mother where as every
attempt ended up in failure both the
Bears and I were wishing for a
successful hunt they wanted to eat I was
hoping to capture that amazing moment
depicting the intensity of nature when I
shared my wish with Oscar on my guide he
had discouraged me and said well we can
do that but the chances are zero percent
since no one has ever photographed a
polar bear hunting this year before talk
about the motivation but I thought
that’s one more reason to go for it
so we located ourselves in front of the
polar bear mother and we had to be
patient because things never happen when
I want them to happen instead things
happen when they need to happen and this
is what it looked like I was off my ink
on my knees and my camera is on a tripod
in front of me I mean my camera towards
the polar bear everything set and my
finger is on the shutter
I can’t move because movement will
condense the snow and trust me the sound
through the ice and to the water when
the seal will hear it it will go to the
next breathing holes
not only will I miss my shot but more
importantly the mother and Cubs won’t
eat after months of starvation so I
can’t move I can’t speak and I have too
much time to think about what am I doing
here and how much I miss my kids
so the hours turned into days and the
only thing I’m allowed to do is stretch
like this I felt like I would imagine
the Polar Bear felt we will both
vigilant and ready for action nothing
happened I was up all through the night
and the only thing keeping me awake was
the fact that I can’t move but I really
need to pee I started thinking that
Oscar was right then suddenly without
any warning at 6:49 a.m. I heard a
splash
I started clicking before even knowing
what’s happening
I noticed the polar bear has caught
something oh my god
it was a ringed seal you could imagine
my excitement and this is the first
image ever in history of a polar bear
hunting a seal
this story has made ripples the tendeth
waves until it became a tsunami it’s
been featured in countless platforms
over all over the world and reached
everywhere
thanks to this unique image we got the
message of polar bear struggle for
survival everywhere
and I felt more can be done to further
spread my story of polar bears
I joined Greenpeace and became their
ambassador to the North Pole
I met with government officials in
Norway discussing their oil and gas
policy in the Arctic Ocean and most of
all I kept making people fall in love
with the Arctic and its inhabitants this
story goes on wherever I travel
everywhere I look I see habitat loss
climate change and wildlife
disappearance one of those places is a
remote paradise an unknown land of pure
nature filled with primal landscape and
creatures Kamchatka in the Russian Far
East is on the brink of a dramatic
transformation in the massive rivers
home to brown bears and salmon fish the
stream is changing salmon numbers are
decreasing due to illegal fishing and
river pollution if this trend continues
the Bears will suffer more
before entering winters hibernation the
Bears are in a state of hyper faiza
meaning they are always hungry but now
their food some fish is decreasing and
if this trend continues the Bears will
suffer more with that thought in mind
I traveled by helicopter to Lake Coral
in southern Kamchatka where I
photographed dozens of bears in intimate
moments as they fight for the best spots
in the stream as they charge at Salman
when mothers feed their young cubs and
protecting them from other males and
mostly the entire
atmosphere of Kamchatka thanks to these
using unique images who had been
featured in countless platforms in
reaching millions of people around the
world who have never even heard about
Kamchatka before that we got the message
of their survival everywhere and I have
one last story for you today its hero is
one of my favorite animals in the world
who’s on the path to extinction the
cheetah just a century ago there were
140,000 cheetahs in the world and today
there are only about 7,000 once they
roamed all through Africa in the Middle
East now except for a small population
of 82 in Iran they can’t be found
anywhere Out of Africa
this is mostly due to hunting and
increasing droughts in Tanzania the rain
comes later and later every year
affecting migration patterns and mother
cheetahs ability to hunt young
wildebeest the statistic is that ninety
five point two percent of cheetah cubs
won’t make it to the age of two mostly
because of other predators like this ina
who tried to attack the young cubs and
the brave mother chased it away of
course it’s not easy raising feeding and
protecting the young cheetah cubs for
two years to adulthood as the mother
must hunt every day or two and these
Cubs didn’t eat anything for three days
already and the mother is tired weak and
starving but there is no excuse as she
must hunt a gazelle for herself and her
young ones here is one example on how
it’s done and I’ll narrate it for you
the cheetah chooses the weakest gazelle
they both run as fast as they can the
cheetah is reaching a speeds of up to
120 kilometres an hour and she’s getting
closer and closer when suddenly the
gazelle kicks a rock which almost hit
the cheetah in her face luckily it
misses it by inches and the cheetah
doesn’t give up she is catching up with
the gazelle
and with her paw knocking her over here
it’s almost done but this gazelle is
fighting for her life and the cheetah as
well the gazelle is fighting back
kicking the cheetah in the jaw
it took the cheetah couple of moments to
recover but the chase continues this is
the first battle until finally the
cheetah gets a firm grip
then comes a quick twist and it’s all
over this image was chosen to represent
the struggle of these big African cats
in the savanna yeah it won awards and
been featured in countless magazines and
TV shows but more importantly this is a
great way to convey the message of
cheetahs struggle for survival
everywhere with the best mothers these
four young adorable cubs enjoying the
sunset in the savanna can grow to be
these four fully grown Cubs enjoying a
licking party in the rains of the
Serengeti these stories go on wherever I
travel and everywhere it’s very
emotional
wild animals are always fascinating
sometimes they’re adorable sometimes
they are funny sometimes are mysterious
sometimes they are divine and sometimes
they are almost human with my photos I
am trying to be their ambassador to be
their voice my camera is a tool for me
to bring the viewers with me on
wonderful adventures and intimate
encounters I wish we will all see then
fall in love and then protect these
precious lives by preserving our planet
it is not too late I believe in the
future where wildlife exists a future
where my own four little boys can grow
up and have a chance
to meet these wonderful creatures in
person in the wild thank you
[Applause]
near the North Pole
with Oscar and Tom two awesome guys in
highly-trained polar bear specialists we
give up our snowmobiles and headed
towards the unknown it was minus 30
degrees centigrade I wore six layers of
special arctic suit because every inch
of exposed skin was aching I could hear
nothing but the hum of my snowmobile and
the thoughts in my head is this still
earth is this real it’s felt like I’m on
another planet and I sure did hope we
could find life out there with this
optimistic state of mind we entered the
blizzard I could see for no more than
twenty meters away and I think that what
scared me the most since our goal was to
spot and photograph polar bears in this
extreme environment so we went from one
frozen field to the next while climbing
mountains and huge glaciers covered with
snow along the way we’ve seen signs of
polar bears in the form of fresh seal
skeletons we knew they must be close but
we couldn’t find them luckily at this
time of the year the Sun doesn’t set at
all in Svalbard so we didn’t have to
make it to our destination before sunset
by the way if you do want to enjoy a
romantic sunset there you have to wait a
bit until late August later that sunny
night we have finally reached the
abandoned Russian town of pyramiden our
base for this expedition after a good
night’s sleep
we finally woke up and continued our
search now polar bears are hard to find
in the snowy white landscapes since the
Bears are well they’re white so we took
us some time and we finally found them
a big mama bear and her two adorable
young cubs only four months old they
were sleeping and we approached slowly
and carefully we waited for hours until
they finally woke up and it was quite a
sight although I’ve seen many polar
bears before that I have never been so
close to them on land my heart was
pounding the lousy little Cubs started
moving around vigorously waking up their
sleeping mom I guess the cub felt a
little guilty for that but he just can’t
be mad with such a sweet little thing as
I was photographing their young cubs I
noticed the mother leaned back and did
this kind of motion with her chest the
little baby bears climbed on top of her
and started breastfeeding I swear I was
so emotional a tear rolled down my cheek
so I did what any wildlife photographer
would do
I broke the frozen tear off threw it
away and continued shooting I’m a
wildlife photographer my mission is to
bring these stories and moments to you I
travel all over the world photographing
and documenting wildlife in their
natural habitat and today I’ll share
three of those stories with you
in 2012 I traveled to swell bird for the
first time Svalbard is in the region
archipelago located about two thousand
kilometres north of Norway and it’s
close to the North Pole as you could
imagine it is known as realm of polar
bears meeting them there was the
beginning of our romance too bad they
were seen from far away in 2014 I
returned to small about to take better
and hopefully closer images but this
time was different I could see the
change although I have been there at the
same time of the year ice had receded
polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt and
the birds we saw were thinner this time
the guide on the boat talked about
global warming and said the glacier
you’re looking at three kilometers away
that glacier has covered where we are
standing right now just twenty years ago
up until that point wildlife photography
was mostly about fun and adventure
but in that moment I realized there’s a
bigger picture here melting sea-ice and
climate change has dramatic effect on
polar bears
scientists believe that polar bears
would become extinct by the end of this
century and that 75% of them will
disappear by 2050 maybe even sooner I
wanted to make everyone fall in love
with the Arctic net inhabitants I wanted
to make a change in how we treat the
Arctic and for this I partnered up with
a specialist behind the bbc’s planet
earth and Frozen Planet I’ve arranged
for special permits by the governor of
Svalbard and had one of the best polar
bear guides with me it wasn’t a cheap
endeavor but I knew in order to achieve
my dream I had to get that unique short
polar bears are the largest land
predator the male’s reach over 700
kilograms and standing upright there are
4.2 meters high
that’s huge I’m 185 so it’s me on top of
myself and then I’m holding a keg of
beer on my head okay
the just enormous but look at them how
they just adorable
we have followed them for days and I was
shooting like crazy every behavior and
family moment mostly the little Cubs
playing perhaps they reminded me of my
own son’s survival of the small Cubs is
not taken for granted
since 75% of them won’t make it to the
age of 2 they are growing and they must
be well-fed the mother must hunt seals
as she didn’t have
to eat herself when she was four months
in the den breastfeeding her young cubs
their food is the ring teal HCl has a
network of 10 to 15 breathing holes and
it must breathe every eight minutes
otherwise it will drown mother bear
patiently awaits near those breathing
holes waiting to catch a seal and feed
her hungry Cubs but sadly things are not
easy for this mother where as every
attempt ended up in failure both the
Bears and I were wishing for a
successful hunt they wanted to eat I was
hoping to capture that amazing moment
depicting the intensity of nature when I
shared my wish with Oscar on my guide he
had discouraged me and said well we can
do that but the chances are zero percent
since no one has ever photographed a
polar bear hunting this year before talk
about the motivation but I thought
that’s one more reason to go for it
so we located ourselves in front of the
polar bear mother and we had to be
patient because things never happen when
I want them to happen instead things
happen when they need to happen and this
is what it looked like I was off my ink
on my knees and my camera is on a tripod
in front of me I mean my camera towards
the polar bear everything set and my
finger is on the shutter
I can’t move because movement will
condense the snow and trust me the sound
through the ice and to the water when
the seal will hear it it will go to the
next breathing holes
not only will I miss my shot but more
importantly the mother and Cubs won’t
eat after months of starvation so I
can’t move I can’t speak and I have too
much time to think about what am I doing
here and how much I miss my kids
so the hours turned into days and the
only thing I’m allowed to do is stretch
like this I felt like I would imagine
the Polar Bear felt we will both
vigilant and ready for action nothing
happened I was up all through the night
and the only thing keeping me awake was
the fact that I can’t move but I really
need to pee I started thinking that
Oscar was right then suddenly without
any warning at 6:49 a.m. I heard a
splash
I started clicking before even knowing
what’s happening
I noticed the polar bear has caught
something oh my god
it was a ringed seal you could imagine
my excitement and this is the first
image ever in history of a polar bear
hunting a seal
this story has made ripples the tendeth
waves until it became a tsunami it’s
been featured in countless platforms
over all over the world and reached
everywhere
thanks to this unique image we got the
message of polar bear struggle for
survival everywhere
and I felt more can be done to further
spread my story of polar bears
I joined Greenpeace and became their
ambassador to the North Pole
I met with government officials in
Norway discussing their oil and gas
policy in the Arctic Ocean and most of
all I kept making people fall in love
with the Arctic and its inhabitants this
story goes on wherever I travel
everywhere I look I see habitat loss
climate change and wildlife
disappearance one of those places is a
remote paradise an unknown land of pure
nature filled with primal landscape and
creatures Kamchatka in the Russian Far
East is on the brink of a dramatic
transformation in the massive rivers
home to brown bears and salmon fish the
stream is changing salmon numbers are
decreasing due to illegal fishing and
river pollution if this trend continues
the Bears will suffer more
before entering winters hibernation the
Bears are in a state of hyper faiza
meaning they are always hungry but now
their food some fish is decreasing and
if this trend continues the Bears will
suffer more with that thought in mind
I traveled by helicopter to Lake Coral
in southern Kamchatka where I
photographed dozens of bears in intimate
moments as they fight for the best spots
in the stream as they charge at Salman
when mothers feed their young cubs and
protecting them from other males and
mostly the entire
atmosphere of Kamchatka thanks to these
using unique images who had been
featured in countless platforms in
reaching millions of people around the
world who have never even heard about
Kamchatka before that we got the message
of their survival everywhere and I have
one last story for you today its hero is
one of my favorite animals in the world
who’s on the path to extinction the
cheetah just a century ago there were
140,000 cheetahs in the world and today
there are only about 7,000 once they
roamed all through Africa in the Middle
East now except for a small population
of 82 in Iran they can’t be found
anywhere Out of Africa
this is mostly due to hunting and
increasing droughts in Tanzania the rain
comes later and later every year
affecting migration patterns and mother
cheetahs ability to hunt young
wildebeest the statistic is that ninety
five point two percent of cheetah cubs
won’t make it to the age of two mostly
because of other predators like this ina
who tried to attack the young cubs and
the brave mother chased it away of
course it’s not easy raising feeding and
protecting the young cheetah cubs for
two years to adulthood as the mother
must hunt every day or two and these
Cubs didn’t eat anything for three days
already and the mother is tired weak and
starving but there is no excuse as she
must hunt a gazelle for herself and her
young ones here is one example on how
it’s done and I’ll narrate it for you
the cheetah chooses the weakest gazelle
they both run as fast as they can the
cheetah is reaching a speeds of up to
120 kilometres an hour and she’s getting
closer and closer when suddenly the
gazelle kicks a rock which almost hit
the cheetah in her face luckily it
misses it by inches and the cheetah
doesn’t give up she is catching up with
the gazelle
and with her paw knocking her over here
it’s almost done but this gazelle is
fighting for her life and the cheetah as
well the gazelle is fighting back
kicking the cheetah in the jaw
it took the cheetah couple of moments to
recover but the chase continues this is
the first battle until finally the
cheetah gets a firm grip
then comes a quick twist and it’s all
over this image was chosen to represent
the struggle of these big African cats
in the savanna yeah it won awards and
been featured in countless magazines and
TV shows but more importantly this is a
great way to convey the message of
cheetahs struggle for survival
everywhere with the best mothers these
four young adorable cubs enjoying the
sunset in the savanna can grow to be
these four fully grown Cubs enjoying a
licking party in the rains of the
Serengeti these stories go on wherever I
travel and everywhere it’s very
emotional
wild animals are always fascinating
sometimes they’re adorable sometimes
they are funny sometimes are mysterious
sometimes they are divine and sometimes
they are almost human with my photos I
am trying to be their ambassador to be
their voice my camera is a tool for me
to bring the viewers with me on
wonderful adventures and intimate
encounters I wish we will all see then
fall in love and then protect these
precious lives by preserving our planet
it is not too late I believe in the
future where wildlife exists a future
where my own four little boys can grow
up and have a chance
to meet these wonderful creatures in
person in the wild thank you
[Applause]
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