This record-setting event beat the previous global record of 1,799 participants, which was set in Poland in 2015 during the XIIth Ice Swimmers Convention.

The first astronauts to enter a polar orbit chose the obvious animal to serve as their zero-g indicator: a plush polar bear.

Wildlife is abundant in this remote and fragile area, and we were looking for seals and polar bears ... The bear sniffed the camera, pawed at it, and knocked it into the water.

As the bear approached the empty fuel drums looking for food ... finding nothing of value in the fuel drums, the polar bear waddled into the water and swam away. Paul worried that he would ...

Polar bears are the planet’s biggest land-based carnivores – although they actually spend most of their lives around water and ice (their Latin name means ‘sea bear’). So they’re at particular risk ...