Filming animals in the wild takes heaps of planning, patience and persistence. But sometimes you get lucky. Wildlife filmmakers Kelsey Eliasson and Karine Genest found themselves in the right place at the right time when the ice in Churchill, Manitoba arrived later than usual delaying the area’s famous polar bears. Almost all of the tourists had already gone home by the time the bears showed up, leaving Eliasson and Genest with the freedom to film the animals behaving naturally in the absence of crowds of humans.

"That's when the bears really let you into their world; that's when they start doing 'bear things,'" Eliasson explained in this behind-the-scenes clip from the making of Bears: Ultimate Survivors. Watch the video here:

Watch the rest of the series below, or learn more about Bears: Ultimate Survivors here.