“Human beings are not made to survive in 50 below zero. Neither are video cameras. But the ingenuity of BJ Kirschhoffer, Director of Field Operations for Polar Bears International, and the research team at Brigham Young University , helped capture one of the most remarkable scenes you'll ever see in the natural world—that is a hibernating polar bear emerging from its den with her cubs.
“When someone begins a sentence with the words: ‘Most dens I've been in …' you know you're talking to a Polar Bear expert. The expert, in this case, is Tom Smith of Brigham Young. He describes Polar Bears as ‘highly honed seal killing machines' whose dens are like ‘crypts,' as small as three feet tall, four feet wide, and five feet long. This for an animal that is a couple of feet taller and as much as three times heavier than Shaquille O'Neal.'
The team is studying how the bears survive for months with no food, fresh air, or water and how that may improve human kidney function and bone density.
