‘A Home Divided’: Exclusive Photos of a Mama Polar Bear With Her 3 Cubs at the North Pole

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

During a cruise to the North Pole on a nuclear-powered icebreaker, a Russian wildlife photographer snapped a stunning series of photos of a mother polar bear and her three cubs. The rare sighting was instantly a cause for celebration.

An IT entrepreneur by day, Dmitry Kokh, 42, lives in Moscow and travels widely. He described his spring trip to the North Pole as “very exciting” as the birth of three cubs is a “rare occurrence in nature.”

“Our expedition leader had not had such an encounter in all his 26 trips,” he told The Epoch Times.

Kokh used a drone with low-noise propellers to avoid disturbing the bears.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

While passing Franz Josef Land, a large northern archipelago, the crew spotted an ivory gull. These are a rather rare bird in these parts that very often accompanies polar bears, Kokh wrote on his Notion page. His expedition leader said that one should be on the lookout for bears after spotting the gull.

“We kept our eyes out, and soon, a bright dot appeared on the horizon,” he wrote.

The bright dot, a mother bear, was soon accompanied by three smaller dots: her cubs. Kokh leapt at the chance to record the rare sighting, first visualizing the shots he wanted before launching his drone from a safe distance.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

“[The mother] came close to the ship, peered into the thawed patch in the ice, as if waiting for a seal. The cubs curled up in a ball behind her and slept peacefully. At some point, she tilted her head, closed her eyes and froze. I snapped the shot,” he wrote.

Besides the joy of the sighting, Kokh’s lucky shots lent him a platform for his message. He calls his favorite image in the series, “A Home Divided.”

He told The Epoch Times: “Polar bears and man exist in two different worlds. We wake up to our smartphone alarms, go to the office so that we can buy lunch, force ourselves to the gym to work off said lunch, and then go to the bar looking to forget the day at the bottom of a glass. The bear just lives, and in order to live it does not need a Gucci bag or a TikTok feed.”

Our progress is “relentless,” says Kokh; as our technologies advance we destroy forests and devastate the oceans. The irony of making this observation from a nuclear-powered iron ship with 75k horsepower, shattering 3-meter-thick ice to pave the way for ocean transit, was not lost on Kokh. He believes the human-animal world is increasingly divided.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

Past photos of Kokh’s, showing polar bears on Kolyuchin Island, in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea, using an abandoned cabin for shelter were recognized at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards in both the Urban Wildlife and Highly Commended categories. Kokh is grateful that his work is sparking “conversations and contemplations” among people with the power to make a difference.

He first fell in love with taking photos as a child. Scuba diving opened up a world of possibilities. He claims it’s an “unglamorous life,” but is addicted to the thrill-seeking. “It’s a gamble, easy to get hooked,” he wrote. “The more you photograph, the higher the stakes.”

Kokh has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Ocean Geographic, and The Guardian. He has traveled to remotest Russia, Antarctica, Norway, the Red Sea, Cuba, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and has South America on his radar for a future expedition.

“I would love to photograph an anaconda under water!” he told The Epoch Times.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

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