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Bay Polar Bears, Canada, 1996

A polar bear cub lets his mother know he's ready to nurse. Polar bears nurse their cubs for two and a half years with milk containing 35 percent fat—a security blanket for the upcoming Arctic winter.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Polar Bears: Stalkers of the High Arctic," January 1998, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by Flip Nicklin