Aika was born in a Berlin zoo. When she was a few months old she left the zoo to be brought up as a pet by a Russian family in Siberia. Then it was decided to take her back to her natural environment in the Arctic to see if she could adapt to life there.
In a unique film Yuri Ledin. one of the Soviet Union's best-known natural history cameramen, recorded Aika's first impressions of her homeland and her first encounter with wild polar bears. Written and narrated by ERIC THOMPSON
Adapted from a Soviet TV film by MARYSE ADDISON