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Photo of the Day

March 31, 2004

Sparring Polar Bears, Hudson Bay, Canada, 1996

Photograph by Flip Nicklin

"Young males play-fight on the Hudson Bay shore in a harmless autumn prelude to spring battles for mates that can end in shattered limbs. Lethargic all summer, males may benefit from such exercise and also learn to assess other bears' strength. When shore ice forms in mid-November, most bears move out to winter on the bay."

(Text from "Polar Bears, Stalkers of the High Arctic," January 1998, National Geographic magazine)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Polar Bears, Stalkers of the High Arctic," January 1998, National Geographic magazine)