US President Barack Obama has tested his wilderness skills during a three-day visit to Alaska to highlight climate change.
In a photo posted on the White House instagram account, the president is seen alongside Bear Grylls with the caption: "Glad this was the only Bear I met in the park".
The survivalist also tweeted the photo describing Mr Obama's efforts on climate change as "inspiring".
@POTUS such special moments all through this journey. & what you are doing to help protect our planet in inspiring. pic.twitter.com/IDWJR3rMPM
— Bear Grylls (@BearGrylls) September 2, 2015
Mr Obama taped an episode yesterday of NBC survival show 'Running Wild with Bear Grylls', which set to air later this year.
He will become the first sitting US president to visit a community north of the Arctic Circle later today.
After meeting tribal leaders and fishermen in Dillingham, home to the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, Mr Obama will fly into Kotzebue, an Arctic town of about 3,000 that is battling coastal erosion caused by rising seas.
The stops, at the end of tour of Alaska, are also aimed at cementing Mr Obama's legacy on improving ties with Native Americans.
He has also travelled by foot and boat to see glaciers that are receding quickly due to climate change.
Yesterday, the president walked down a winding wooded path past a small brown post marked "1926," past a glacial stream trickling over gravel that eons of ice have scraped off mountain peaks.
He reached another post reading "1951" - a marker for the edge of Alaska's Exit Glacier that year - and looked up towards where the rock-rutted ice mass has since receded.
"This is as good a signpost of what we're dealing with on climate change as just about anything," Mr Obama told reporters waiting at the base of the glacier.
Last year alone, the Exit Glacier melted and retreated 57m toward the Harding ice field, which itself has lost 10% of its mass since 1950, mainly due to climate change.
Mr Obama has announced a few new initiatives during his trip. He renamed North American's highest peak, Mount McKinley, as Denali in a nod to the wishes of native Alaskans, and said he would press forward on building badly needed ice breakers.
But the White House rolled out Mr Obama's biggest climate initiative months ago - tough new rules to curb carbon emissions from power plants.
The main purpose of the Alaska journey is to create powerful images the White House will use to engage Americans on the issue.
