Few mothers in all of nature are as devoted as a polar bear
Cubs learn early to obey her commands
Finally£¬the sea freezes over
The season of waiting and fasting ends
With their extraordinary sense of smell
they can detect a seal 20 miles away
The feast of winter is about to begin
Elsewhere in Alaska
a time of darkness and scarcity arrives
Caribou migrating to wintering grounds
scrape beneath the snow day or night
for moss and sedge grass
Searching for food
they£¬re vulnerable to hungry predators
For a family of wolves
prey are easier to track in snow
With jaws powerful enough
to crush the caribou's largest bones
they will leave little behind
For a species that must cooperate
to survive£¬rivalries are brief
the leader's dominance nearly absolute
As the full fury of winter envelops Alaska
temperatures can reach 50 below zero or lower
Elk have learn to change their diet in winter
to feed on only the highest protein forage available
Yet it is a harsh time for yearlings
Half will not make it
Bison£¬protected by shaggy hair over head and shoulders
also grow a special winter fur
to cover their hindquarters
The musk ox is outfitted with broad hooves
to walk on snow
and a winter undercoat of cashmere£­like wool
softer than a lamb's and impervious to the cold
Alaska's last horned survivor
of the Pleistocene Age
it embodies the resiliency and adaptability of life
in it's battle with the elements
Humans£¬too£¬have adapted to the land of winter
Called "Eskimos"£¬by outsiders
descended from peoples who crossed the ice age land bridge
the lnupiat learned to use every resource in their frozen desert
For food£¬they turned to the sea
Still today£¬they watch for arriving bowhead whales
If the lnupiat have been respectful
they believe a whale will give itself to them as a gift
The hunt£¬sanctioned by international law
is a sacred ritual to the lnupiats
Hauling in it's body
they thank the whale
for the gift of life£­sustaining nourishment
to combat the piercing cold
For other humans£¬the cold has posed a mortal threat
recorded dramatically in images of another age
In 1897£¬one of history's largest gold strikes
drew a quarter£­million "stampeders"
through the snowbound passes of Alaska
towards the gold fields of the Klondike
Anticipating easy wealth
they trudged headlong into an Ice Age
Half the prospectors would never even reach the gold fields
Arriving ships were marooned eight months by ice
Many attempted to make the journey with pack horses
The animals died by the thousands
Hundreds of men died from exposure
or were buried alive in avalanches
Of the quarter million who came£¬perhaps 400 struck it rich
Yet some who failed to find easy wealth were inspired
by the challenges of this new land
Like waves of others across the ages
they adapted to Alaska and stayed on
Five, four, three, two, one...go
Before a crowed that includes descendants
of those "stampeders"
dog sled teams set out from Anchorage each year
to commemorate the Gold Rush
in a thousand£­mile race known worldwide as the lditarod
In the defiant spirit of Alaska
winter's harsh challenges are turned to rugged sport
Each year£¬as the warm season approaches
the vast spectacle of life's resiliency
unfolds again in Alaska
The days lengthen£¬grasses reemerge
and along stream bottoms
the promise of the future is renewed
Mere glimmers of life now
salmon hatchlings will soon depart
to return years hence and nourish Alaska
as a miracle of summer that sustains life in winter
It's a land of countless streams
and mountain peaks still unnamed
a place shaped by ice and solitude
In Alaska£¬we are witnesses to the triumph of life itself
Here£¬we can rediscover a vitality
vanishing from our lives
and reawaken the spirit of the wild
remembered not in our minds£¬but in the blood and the heart
Whether or not we will ever reach Alaska
we all want to know that such a place still exists