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Headline : Incredible Pictures Show Polar Bear Mother And Cub Enjoying Vital Meal
Caption : Sometimes nature isn’t cute and cuddly.

These visceral pictures show a mother polar bear and cub having a vital – and bloody - meal.

The family were pictured feeding on an unfortunate seal in Svalbard, Norway.

Hilariously, the cub had so much to eat it struggled to get up a hill – where it promptly fell asleep on its mother.

World renowned wildlife photographer Andy Rouse shot the images on 15 July.

He explains: “I was leading an expedition to explore this amazing place. The images show a mother and cub feeding on a fresh seal kill. We came upon them well after they had made the kill. The cub was eating meat, but we also witnessed it suckling from the mother. Polar Bears are dangerous apex predators and we kept our distance but at no time did the female show us any aggression. The primary threat to polar bears is the excessive hunting across the Arctic, which has seen many thousands killed in recent years.

“It was an amazing experience to see the cub learning such an important life skill. It fed until it could hardly walk. We laughed as it was obviously such a huge effort for it to get back up the hill to its mother whereupon it fell soundly asleep!

“My intention as a professional wildlife photographer is always to show images that differ from the norm, and this time with my Olympus mirrorless camera I think I did just that. These images show the real life of polar bears, as the apex predators it’s a matter of survival for them to hunt and kill seals. Unfortunately, these kinds of images are rarely shown to the public as these days we like to show only pretty and glossy wildlife, I like to do exactly the opposite, to show nature in the raw as I see it”.

Andy Rouse is a professional wildlife photographer and conservationist who travels the world documenting the beautiful wildlife that he sees.
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