Photographs from award-winning wildlife photographer Florian Schulz are featured in the July issue of National Geographic Magazine accompanying a story by Audubon contributing editor Susan McGrath. The article, entitled On Thin Ice, describes the threats facing polar bears in the rapidly warming Arctic. If the sea ice continues to shrink, polar bears could face extinction in the wild. Read the full story here.

See Schulz's images from the National Geographic story and many more in his upcoming book with Braided River: To the Arctic, coming fall 2011.  To learn more about Florian Schulz and his work to protect wildlife corridors, visit www.VisionsoftheWild.com. 

This stunning photograph of a polar bear exploring near a Fin Whale carcass was taken using a remote camera.

Watch a video about how this image was taken at National Geographic.

Photo by Florian Schulz

As the summer pack ice shrinks, competition between polar bears becomes fierce. This mother polar bear and her two young cubs leap across the pack ice to escape an approaching male.

"When the female saw him," Schulz said, "she huffed at her cubs, and then they just pinned their ears back and ran." Leaping over floes, they kept going long after they'd made good their escape.

Photo by Florian Schulz

Warming summer temperatures are causing the sea ice to shrink, making it difficult for polar bears to hunt and forcing them to swim for miles in the open ocean.

This polar bear floats on a piece of sea ice off the coast of Svalbard, Norway.

Photo by Florian Schulz