THE BBC has released new pictures from its epic documentary charting life in the polar regions.
Beluga whales enjoy an impromptu spa session, Adélie penguins toughen up their young and polar bears reveal a surprising vegetarian side in the stunning images.
Episode four of Frozen Planet airs on November 15.
Bull musk ox fighting over females, Alaska. The impact is like a car crash at 30mph and these battles can be fatal. – (C) BBC – Photographer: BBC
Polar bears feeding on seaweed (kelp), Svalbard. Polar bears are surprisingly vegetarian and enjoy some greens along with their normal diet of meat. – (C) BBC – Photographer: BBC
Caribou males fighting over a female, Barrenlands, Canada. – (C) BBC – Photographer: BBC
Hoar frost forms on autumn leaves. – (C) BBC – Photographer: BBC
Didier Noirot with emperor penguins on ice. They are returning to breed at Cape Washington, Antarctic continent. The team used a range of cameras to capture this spectacular moment – from a polecam positioned just under the ice edge to a hi-speed camera above the ice.
The difficulty was predicting where exactly the penguins would emerge. The largest penguin on earth seemed completely unphased by Didier and was often keen to take a closer look at the cameras. – (C) Chadden Hunter – Photographer: Chadden Hunter
Didier Noirot cameraman filming emperor penguins underwater. They are returning to breed at Cape Washington, Antarctic continent.
The team used a ground-breaking hi-speed camera underwater to capture the penguins magical underwater ballet. – (C) Chadden Hunter – Photographer: Chadden Hunter
Aerial view of giant beluga whale’s inCunningham Inlet,Canada. Every year thousands of belugas migrate here hundreds of miles so that they can have a body scrub in the shallows.
This helps them to moult their dead skin, which makes them more streamlined. It’s also a good opportunity for the whales to socialise.
The team recorded an extraordinary range of calls and squeaks underwater as the “canaries of the sea” vocalised constantly whilst in the bay. – (C) Elizabeth White – Photographer: Elizabeth White
Adélie Penguin jumping out onto ice, Cape Crozier, Antarctica. Parents must navigate the retreating ice edge several times a day between fishing trips. – (C) Jeff Wilson – Photographer: Jeff Wilson
Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) family group in tundra landscape, autumn, Canadian Arctic. Musk ox are Arctic residents and are uniquely adapted to withstand the ferocious Arctic winters with a double layer of fur – (C) Pete Cairns / naturepl.com – Photographer: Pete Cairns
Adélie Penguin adults on Ice floes off the coast of Cape Crozier colony, Antarctica. Their growing chicks require constant feeding, and the adults take it in turn to leave the colony to hunt for silverfish and krill. – (C) Jeff Wilson – Photographer: Jeff Wilson
Leopard seal attacks Adélie Penguin on ice floe. – (C) Jeff Wilson – Photographer: Jeff Wilson
Mass of seabirds feeding and flying beside glacier front. The run-off from the glacier stirs up the water and brings food to the surface for the kittiwakes and fulmars. – (C) Ted Giffords – Photographer: Ted Giffords
Beluga whale enjoying a body scrub. It uses the gravel on the beach as a loofah to scrape off old skin as it moults. – (C) BBC – Photographer: BBC
Adélie adults make their chicks chase them for food after returning from the sea,CapeCrozier,Antarctica. The chase is to bring their chicks away from the large creches in the colony and deter other greedy chicks from collecting food from penguins that are not their parents!
Penguins don’t often manage to raise both of their pair of chicks to fledging – the weaker chick struggles to win the race to get a meal. – (C) Jeff Wilson – Photographer: Jeff Wilson
