During the long winter chill, Lake Baikal transforms from a flat expanse into cut crystal. Movement across its huge surface ruptures and shifts the ice layers. 

 

Adult seals spend the winter alone, mostly in the water. But come April, they will have some company. This pup is the first of the season to emerge. Weaning for Baikal seals is abrupt. The mother starves herself during the eight weeks of feeding the pup in the snow den, then she simply abandons it on the surface. 

 

Soon the icescape will be dotted with other emerging pups. Already this one is eager to explore its world. A layer of fat keeps it warm above and below the waterline, where icy cavens create a frozen paradise. 

 

But Siberia’s chilling reputation tells only half the story, the beauty as expansive as its borders and the diversity to rival any place on earth. This Russian land, mountains and lakes, forests and plains can only be described in a single surprising word--Siberia.