How do you get a polar bear cub to wave at you?

I stumbled on the works of nature conservation photographer Thomas Mangelsen and spent the last half of an hour staring mesmerized at my screen. This one (below) I had to show to everyone within a 5km radius. Mangelsen describes how he captured the incredible photo of a family of polar bears in Manitoba, and his description is just as a stirring as the photo.

Rise and Shine by Thomas Mangelsen

“… Tired from their journey, the cubs were snuggled into their mother’s body. After an hour or so one of the furry cubs stirred. While sleepily squirming into a more comfy niche, the wriggling cub woke her sibling, then promptly fell back to sleep. The newly roused cub climbed his mother’s side and tried to return to his nap, but soon gave up and slid to the soft snow near his mother’s head. Persistent licks to her chin from the small precocious bear evoked little response, and the cub’s attention then turned towards us watching from afar. In a human-like gesture he raised his paw as if to say, “How about you? Rise and shine!”

We watched them that afternoon until sunset. The following morning we found their tracks headed toward Hudson Bay where the winds would hopefully blow the ice to the Western shore allowing the mother to hunt and feed her family. For the eleventh year, I returned to the far north in search of the polar bear. Once again my soul swelled with great respect and awe for these great white bears and gratitude to have observed and photographed the intimacy of a polar bear family with tiny cubs.” -Source