The bear pleaded to the sailors for help. What they did then was wonderful. In the depths of Russia, there was a mother bear with her young trying to paddle across a freezing cold Lake with her young bear Cubs. Despite early optimism on the part of the mother bear, she was soon faced with the reality of how difficult it would be to cross the Lake. As naturally she was a stronger swimmer than her two baby Cubs.
What she did next goes against all our basic beliefs about parental instinct. This is a heartbreaking tale. We’re told that love has no bounds and that it can take many forms. Indeed, there is no stronger bond than the love between a mother and her babies. Yet the story of the mother bear and her Cubs will go against all that we believe when it comes to love between a mother and a child.
Sometimes we’re surprised by the behaviors of those looking out for themselves. And then again, sometimes we can be surprised by the behaviors of those who go above and beyond. For others, those are the circumstances where real love has no bounds. In the northeastern tip of Russia lies the freshwater Lake Voyager, which is where the story of the mother bear takes place. Given its geographical location, it’s not surprising that temperatures can be as low as -20 Celsius or approximately negative four Fahrenheit.
Sometimes this is the same for animals. And in this story, the mother bear realizes this as she tries to cross a freezing Lake with two Cubs. However, what she did not foresee was how difficult this would be for her two baby Cubs. Crossing the Lake. So what happened when the mother bear tried to cross the Lake, she jumped into the Lake with her two Cubs on her back.
She was certain that the babies were able to tag along with her. Her Cubs assumed they would be able to cling on her back. But very early on, it became clear that the Cubs would not be able to keep up and with the speed of their mother. And she, too, realized that her babies might not make it. At this point, something amazing occurred.
Breaking Free Despite everything we know about mothers protecting their young and even sacrificing their own lives for the sake of their babies, this mother bear decided to break free from her Cubs and left them in the Lake as she continued to swim to the other side alone. There are always two sides of the story. This mother bear really did try to help her Cubs across the Lake.
But there was a strong current running through the Lake and ripped the Cubs off the mother Bear’s back. Once the Cubs were apart from their mother, she had no choice but to keep swimming to the other side in the hope that her Cubs would follow and together they would reach dry land Lake was freezing cold, and in such difficult conditions, the Cubs were losing energy and desperately needed help.
It was harsh. The baby Cubs were having an extremely difficult time. It’s hard to imagine how they might have been feeling, realizing their lives were in real danger. We must assume that they have been terrified and paddling furiously to save their lives. Just as they were starting to lose hope.
Their fortunes were about to change just now, where all hope seemed to be lost and the Cubs could potentially drown, a boat appeared to save the day. Any human would have been shouting to the people aboard the boat to come and save them, but the Cubs could not do that. Luckily, the people on board the ship could see exactly what was going on and were there to help. At the same time, the Cubs caught sight of the boat and started swimming towards it, possibly thinking that this could be their Saviors. The people on board the ship were actually fishermen and although they had come out to sea in search of some fresh fish to catch, they had to make a quick change of plans in order to help the Cubs from drowning.
The closer they got, the more they realized just how tired the Cubs looked as they were struggling to swim and keep their heads above water. This may not have been the Fisherman’s plans when they set out for the day’s catch, but they decided they couldn’t leave the Cubs to potentially drown. The fishermen sprang into action, but before they set about rescuing the Cubs, they realized that the mother bear was still in the vicinity,
despite her having left her Cubs to swim on their own. The fishermen were concerned that if she saw humans interfering, her motherly instincts might still kick in and then who knows what would have happened? Eventually, the fishermen waited for the mother bear to continue on before they went about rescuing the Cubs.
As the fishermen waited for the motherbear to leave the premises of the Cubs, they began to think about how to actually rescue the tired Cubs out of the freezing waters. In today’s world where video clips like this go viral, one of the fishermen decided to start filming what was going on and ran to get his smartphone so he could capture every moment of the rescue. Within moments, one of the bear Cubs had swum close enough to the fishermen and realized that this boat may be able to help them.
The cub then placed a paw on the boat, trying to get a good grip, possibly to pull himself into the vessel. The little bear cub was trying desperately to pull himself up into the boat, but unfortunately he was too small to lift up over the side and Besides, he was exhausted from swimming and trying to tread water.
The waters were very cold and had a strong current, so these were difficult conditions for the bear cub. One of the Cubs started to use their sharp teeth, though usually bears use their very sharp teeth for hunting. On this occasion, the cub could use them to his advantage and started to bite down on the ship. It seemed to do the trick. The cub, despite managing to dig its teeth into the side of the ship, was unable to lever himself onto the boat.
The fishermen were going to have to find a way to help the desperate Cubs out of the freezing water after the rescue, the fishermen were quoted saying that they couldn’t look the other way and decided that it was their duty to do everything in their power in order to rescue the Cubs who were in real danger of drowning to death. Getting closer to the rescue, both sides realized there needed to be real trust between them in order to succeed.
So with little time left, the fishermen and the Cubs had to push their fears aside. The fishermen knew that one wrong move could be potentially fatal for the Cubs if they were to slip. During the rescue, the fishermen and the Cubs knew that they needed to trust each other to make sure they were successfully rescued.
At that very moment, something amazing occurred. The cub who had sunk his teeth into the side of the boat came into eye contact with one of the fishermen. It was almost as if they were communicating with each other in a way which showed that they could trust one another. The look in the eye of the cub was heartbreaking for the fishermen and it was almost as if he could hear the cub pleading to be rescued. They could have sailed away, effectively giving the Cubs a death sentence but this would have stayed with them forever.
Instead, they enlisted their Fisherman’s net and tried to lift the Cubs aboard using that as a tool. At first sight, using the fishing net seemed like an ingenious idea but this was not a foolproof method. It’s important to remember that this net is intended to catch fish and does not necessarily withstand the weight of a bear cub. Still, the fishermen decided they needed to give it their best try in order to help rescue the pair of Cubs. They threw the net towards the Cubs and tried to pull them in towards the boat.
Time was against them and conditions were poor for the Cubs. The fishermen then tried to raise the first cub into the boat but this was not without its difficulties. The cub weighed a lot more than a net full of fish which is what these men were used to catching in the Lake. Bear Cubs are potentially vicious and dangerous so it was important to fishermen to keep calm,
keep the Cubs at ease and pull them towards the vessel. The trust at this point was vital so that the bears could feel safe from the fishermen even though these were not fully grown bears who as adults can weigh as much as one £300, they still weighed a considerable amount.
The fishermen feared they may not succeed in rescuing the Cubs and so they had to muster all of their strength to keep pulling. Slowly but surely, the fishermen worked in the first cub inch closer to the deck of the boat. The first bear cub was now on the boat. They’d done it. Even though only one half of the task was done.
The fishermen were confident that the net would work and they’d be able to repeat the process with the second cub. They navigated the boat closer to where the cub was swimming and threw the net into the water to catch the cub.
The second time around, the fisherman knew how the process should go and so things were a little easier. They encased the cub in the net began to draw him closer to the boat. The fishermen used all their remaining energy to pull the second bear cub onto the deck of the ship.
They had succeeded once already, so they knew how much effort it would take. But they were willing to put it in to rescue the second cub. The Cubs were now safe with the fishermen on board the boat and so far, the fishermen to properly examine them. It did not take long for them to realize that the Cubs had some severe shakes. Perhaps this was the cold or they may have been terrified.
