Polar Bears migrate out of town to hunt on the ice.

The ice is forming quickly on Hudson Bay.  Two days ago, we had "grease ice" and solid ice around the water's edge.  A vast area of land drains into Hudson Bay, including northern Quebec and Ontario, all of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta and a portion of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, in addition to parts of the northern United States.  All this fresh water draining into Hudson Bay freezes before the salt water of the Bay so the grease ice actually looks similar to a slushee with the frozen fresh water floating on top.  Well, it dropped to -37 C for a day and Hudson Bay froze solid--or at least it appears solid.  We watched a couple polar bears walk out on the ice to test it.  They both spread their 4 legs out very wide to disperse their weight and carefully walked out a bit to test if the ice would hold them!  They would slowly put one paw down, sniff the ice, wait a bit, move another paw, same, same until they'd proceed out on the ice a short distance.  Both times, they walked back to the shore, so guess the ice wasn't ready to hold them. This time of year the ice will freeze, thaw, refreeze until "the Freeze" and everyone suspects this is the Freeze and the ice on Hudson Bay will stay frozen solid with a few cracks until next summer.  Pack ice in the middle (chunks of ice that have been driven together into a single mass) and fast ice (ice that is attached to the shore) in the rest of the bay.  The ice is still subjected to tidal action a couple times a day.  The ice is not smooth--in fact, it looks like a frozen wave in the process of coming in.  

Our second day out in the Tundra Buggy was very different from the first when we saw lots of bears close to the shore.  The ice froze in that short amount of time and today we saw at least 10 bears out on the ice and there was a red stain by a bear.  Our guide said it was  probably a ringed seal and the bears are back to hunting!  That's great news for the bears.  They haven't eaten since mid July and I'm sure they're hungry. They are too far out to have that up close, personal feel of 2 days ago.  Can't believe how lucky I am to get to experience both scenarios!

But we did have a close encounter with one 3-4 year old female.  We started watching her as she was eating kelp and then rolling in the kelp.  We'd seen this behavior several times.  The bears prepare their digestive system to start working again after fasting all summer by eating kelp, which is thought to have some nutritional value, but mostly it gives them diarrhea and prepares them to start eating again.   The bears seem to be very curious animals and I was constantly surprised how they would walk up to us seemingly unafraid,  and like other bears, she walked right up to the tundra buggy.  She must have found us very interesting and to everyone's surprise, she actually jumped up on the tundra buggy for a closer look.  I am surrounded by a fortune in cameras and lenses, but those mega lenses can't take photos up close like my "point and shoot" camera with minimal telephoto capacity.  The bear got within 2 feet of me, so guess who got some of the best photos of the bear?  Me!  These pictures were taken with no telephoto.  The first two pictures of the bear, named Ant, was taken with my telephoto, but he others are not.

 

 

 

 

One of my trip mates gave me a video or the entire episode of the bear coming up to the tundra buggy, checking us out and then jumping on the back to get a closer view, and then walking away.  It is an adrenaline rush and I was so excited.  It made up for only seeing one bear up close today!

I always thought of the tundra as cold and desolate, but there are all kinds of animals.  Some are really hard to see like this arctic hare.

  And others, like this silver fox, really stand out.  Our guide said this is the first silver fox he has seen in 16 years of research in the arctic. 

The one thing we didn't see was an arctic fox.  They are known for following the polar bears out onto the ice and eating after the polar bears have had their fill of seals.  They cannot get wet like the bears, so they need to get off the ice prior to breakup.  They are also different from the polar bears in that they have a varied diet of eggs, geese, ptarmigans, lemmings and they will do much better with the warming climate since they don't just depend on eating one thing like the polar bears.  Woodland Park Zoo has an "Adopt an Arctic Fox Program"  so guess I can walk a couple blocks and see arctic foxes!  Interesting fact about them is that they have the largest litters of all carnivores and can have up to 25 pups.

A Metis Dog Musher

We spent an evening in the tent of Gerald and Jennifer Azure.  He is a Metis, half Cree Indian and half French, and one of 10 kids that grew up in a small town in rural Manitoba, sounds like lots of alcohol problems in his family and they made their living by running trap lines with their dog teams.  When snowmobiles made it easier to manage the trap lines, his parents had more time to drink in town and left the kids at the cabins out on the trap lines.  As trapping came to an end, Gerald says, "our life fell out from underneath us".   He has evolved from that to running the most successful B&B in Churchill called Bluesky Bed and Sled and he's kept his dog team and offers tourist dog sled rides and is the co-founder of The Hudson Bay Quest, an Iditarod type dog sled race from Churchill to Quillan south of here.  He starred in a segment of a reality TV show on the Aboriginal People's Television Network called "Fish out of Water".  He was featured in a human interest story during the Canadian winter Olympics about Isabel, one of lead dogs who is blind.  Two of their lead sled dogs were in the tent with us for the evening, and Jennifer brought in two of their 5 day old puppies snuggled in leather and fur gloves.

Gerard told us really almost unbelievable tales of his dog sled races and life on the trap lines, but his love for sled dogs and the problems these dogs face was his main focus.

Several of their dogs are rescue dogs who have been abandoned, mistreated, some has been interbred with other breeds like greyhound and border collie so that the dog can run faster and not overheat, but they don't have enough hair to withstand the cold nights and they need to sleep inside!  Most of his team are Greenland Husky or Eskimo sled dogs and they are compact dog that are smaller than most people's labs.  Names of his dogs included Ultra, Sound, Yahoo, Google, Pepsi, Coffee in addition to the more traditional Buck and Chinook.  Tomorrow, we go for a sled dog ride with Gerald.

One last note on the Hudson Bay Quest.  It was originally a 240 mile ride from Churchill to Arviat hugging the coast of Hudson's Bay.  Lots of storms and the ice moves twice a day with the tides.  It became so dangerous and several mushers and dogs were almost killed, so now the route has been moved from Gillam to Churchill.  Gillam is 210 miles due south so the route is now through the trees.   

All good sled dogs come back as ravens." 

Where I'm staying

The town of Churchill has been inhabited by indigenous people for about 6000 years.  It is the traditional meeting place of three existing tribes: the Cree, Dene and Inuit.  French trappers came in the 1500-1600 and married Eskimo women and created a new culture called the Metis who are still alive and well in this area.   Charles I of England gave his nephew, Prince Rupert all the land that drained into Hudson's and James Bay.  That was an enormous amount of land--1/3 of N. America.  Next came Hudson Bay Company that dominated the area for the next 300 years with the fur trade.  The Hudson's Bay train arrived in 1927 and linked Churchill and the small towns south to Winnipeg and the rest of Canada. During WWII, American created Fort Churchill to aid the war effort in Europe and 5600 people lived here  .  Then in 1950s, Fort Churchill was continued to flourish with a population of 7000 working on rocket research, cold weather training and exercises for the military, and refueling for B52 during the cold war.  200 scientist worked on atmospheric testing.  In 1970, the American closed the base and left.  Even though many of the military building were demolished close to the actual base, the airport and D20, a double Quonset hut --know as the polar bear jail --remain.  There are still lots of scattered buildings from the military era and it's just too expensive to removed them currently. Some like around where we are continue to be used and some are just abandoned.  The permanent population of town is about 800 with another 200 as seasonal workers and port employees.  Most of the seasonal influx is now for 6 weeks to see the polar bears, 6-7 weeks in the summer to see Beluga whales and less so in Feb/March is experience the Northern Lights on cold, clear nights.  This is Churchill-

 

 Left over military structures- below are 2 that are part of the Center where we are staying.

 Churchill Northern Studies Centre was established in 1976 by members of the local Churchill community, university researchers and the government of Canada.  It remains independent with no university or organizational affiliation.  It's a non-profit whose mandate is to facilitate research and education of the Western Hudson Bay. There is a full time research staff that assists investigators in locating and selecting field sites and help collect data and maintain equipment on a contract basis.  For a daily fee, researchers get room and board, airport/train transfers, lab space and internet. We are not allowed to go out of the building, so I just have the front of the building on my way to the bus!

We took a tour today of the new facility that was opened in 2011 and is where we are staying.  It sits adjacent to the repurposed building left over from the missile site that was used since 1976.  The 18 million price tag created a gold star green building that houses a cafeteria, classrooms, laboratories, reference collections, wireless internet--remember we're at the end of the world--There is a 360 degree aurora viewing dome upstairs that is good for watching storms in addition to the northern lights.  Since we can't go outside to see bears--or anything else, there is an observation platform on the second floor.  Fitness room, media center with lots of movies, a library, recreation room, quiet room, computers for use by anyone, and a gift shop.  Our rooms are 4 person dorm rooms.  A bit tight, but I haven't spent much time in the room.

Apparently this is a researcher's paradise.  Churchill has a unique location between the arctic tundra and the northern boreal forest.  There is fresh water from the Churchill River flowing into Hudson Bay and Northern Canada's only deep water seaport and  during the ice-free months of the year, it's an important link between the wheat fields of Western Canada and markets in Europe.  It is also an area with a 6000 year history and an excellent, but small Eskimo Museum with artifacts starting with the pre-Dorset people dating from 3000 BCE to the historic Eskimo cultures dating to the 17th century.   

 

A Sad Day in Churchill

There are 25,000 polar bears in the world, of which 15,000 live in arctic Canada and around Churchill.  Most of these bears live far from people and towns.  Not so in Churchill, not only is there  a small town, but 10,000 or so tourist come here yearly to see the polar bears, and other wildlife.  Polar bears and people don't mix well.  Unlike brown and black bears that view humans as an obstruction and something in their way, the polar bears are predatory and view us, and most things as food.  They are also all over the place, hungry and just waiting for the ice to form so that they can go out on the ice and hunt seals.  There are 4 less bears here today.  Last Saturday, a young woman walking alone at 5 AM was attacked by a bear.  A long time resident heard the commotion, grabbed a shovel and ran out to help the woman.  The bear turned and attacked him, threw him to the ground and finally ran away when other people arrived.  The bear was tracked into an outlying area and shot--but, they shot the wrong bear.  The dead bear was the mother of a cub.  The cub will be transferred to a zoo because it is too young to fend for itself.  The offender bear was then found and shot.  In another incident yesterday, a man was attached by a bear and was shot by another person.     So sad.

Polar Bear Conservation

Polar bears face lots of issues.
 First is the loss of habitat.  Not just the usual encroachment of people, but with climate change, the loss of ice.  Polar bears are solitary animals and need a large amount of space.  They hunt and eat a diet of ringed seals and walrus and they can only do this on  ice.  The other arctic animals are facing the same problems with our warming climate and the loss of ice.   They are all dependent on one  another in addition to the ice. This picture looks out at Hudson Bay--you can see frozen ice forming along the shore and the open bay beyond. 

2.  Contact and conflict with people.  The arctic is an underpopulated area but does have towns and people.  This bear and cub came to with 2 feet of the side of our building today before being scared away. It was snowing, -25 C, and winds of 40 mph doesn't make for good picture quality!

3.  Hunting during the 1950s and 60s into the present and, until recently, the denning area for the polar bears was raided and the baby polar bears were used as dog food.  That area is now Wapusk National Park and no one except a few indigenous people are allowed in this area.  Also, in 1973 all countries with polar bears signed the International ban on hunting polar bears. 

4.  Pollution-- dioxins and other chemicals are found in the fat of polar bears.

5. Habituation--bears exposed to something will look for it again.  Bears are smart and all it takes is once.  If they find any source of food they will remember and return to look for it again.  2 juvenile polar bears broke into the food stores of the center here a few years ago and returned to the same spot within hours of being chased away to look for food again. 

The ice is now a month late in forming and it melts a month earlier than it did 12 years ago.  Polar bears only eat when they are out on the ice.  Much less ice means much less food.  Unlike other animals here like the arctic fox whose diet includes eggs, geese, ptarmigans, and following the polar bears around to eat their left overs, the bears only eat ringed seals or an occasional walrus, bearded seal or harp seal.  As the time that Hudson Bay is frozen over lessens, it will eventually reach a point where there is not enough "ice time" for the bears to get enough food to get them through the non-ice times.  After spending the fall in the birthing den, having their babies around Christmas, the moms and new babies arrive on the ice in March. She hasn't eaten since last July when the ice melted and the mom bear needs to eat enough to build up fat stores to nurse their cubs--sometimes 2-3 initially, and to keep themselves healthy enough to survive.  The cubs will not survive without the mom. These are stuffed polar bears in the Canada park services exhibit in Churchill. Don't remember what caused their demise.

 The stories about polar bears starving are often confused with times that polar bears just don't eat, but is a possibility as the time available for hunting seals  becomes less and less. 

Bears drowning is another story we hear--when bears are a long way off land and the ice isn't available to hunt or if the ice starts to break up and the bear falls through, they sometimes need to swim 50-60 miles.  Polar bears are strong swimmers and are buoyant, but  have to keep their heads out of the water.  In bad weather or if the bear is tired, this is hard to do and they can drown.  Also, as the water gets warmer, large predatory manuals like transient orcas and sharks are moving further north and pose a threat to the bears.

Geez, that's a real upper, huh?  So many of the practices that were detrimental to polar bears have been stopped--food baiting to get the bears to come closer to humans, letting bears graze at the town dump, to name just two.  There are polar bear alert signs around town and when bears do become a nuisance, they are trapped in a trap like this one, put in polar bear jail ( holding facility) BUT if global climate change continues at the same speed it's been going, sometime in the next 10-50 years, the decreased ice season will make the polar bears life here unsustainable.  Once the ice doesn't freeze until December and melts by May, it will be impossible for breeding females to get enough food for them and their young to eat, and the species will not be able to survive.  This change in climate is happening too fast for the polar bear to adapt.  Their diets are so limited and also they can't go back to the land--not only as far as adapting quick enough, but that niche on land is filled already by the tundra grizzly, from which the polar bear descended. 

and either airlifted via helicopter away from town or if Hudson Bay is frozen, put onto the ice so hopefully they'll start hunting.

 

 

A Day on the Tundra Buggy

The only way to see polar bears on the tundra is in a tundra buggy.  This vehicle was developed by a local several years ago to go out ice fishing and they really caught on.  Now there are dozen traveling around the tundra  so tourist can safely see the polar bears up close. The back is a viewing platform that allows one to see the bears, but not be in any danger. Until recently, operator did all kinds of thing to attract the bears, like smear lard on the wheels, throw food over the side to the bears and anything they could to get the bears closer.  That behavior isn't good for the bears and got them in lots of trouble, so now, we go out and have no contact at all with the bears.  They come up to the tundra buggy or they don't.  Nothing is supposed to be done to interfere with their activity.   

 

Front view

 

And inside has lots of room, a loo, and a toasty stove.

 

We saw lots of bears waiting for the ice to freeze on Hudson's Bay so that they can get out on the ice and eat.  Remember, these bears haven't eaten since the ice melted in July.    Here are some pictures from my point and shoot camera.  This is where the quality of a camera really shows.  Others on the trip got some fantastic close up of the bears.

 

 

and a silver fox that was very easy to spot!



Polar Bears in Churchill, Canada

After a two days and 600 miles from Winnipeg on the Hudson Bay Railroad, we arrived in Churchill, Canada, our destination and where we'd spent 8 days exploring the arctic north and mostly, for me, seeing polar bears in their natural habitat.  Our van pulled into the parking lot of the Churchill Northern Studies Center.  About half of the people were off the van and the driver yelled, "get back in the car!!"  When he quickly repeated it, we hussled back into the van.  There was a bear beside the building that was headed our way.  I never saw the bear, but at least I knew there were polar bears in the vicinity!  As we're eating lunch, a subadult male (a teenager) wandered into the area in front of the cafeteria.  We all ran to the window so excited to see our first bear.

The director of the Center was out the door with a gun with what's called cracker shells--they make a loud sound and explodes a ways out like a firecracker.  He was off!  Someone got in their car and chased after him to make sure he was gone.

Waiting for everyone to arrive, the group went on a walk around the research center for about an hour.  It was cold and when the wind would kick up, it would cut through the several layers of clothes.  We were accompanied by Rupert, our guide for the week, and two others--they were all armed with guns and the same amno that we'd seen demonstrated at lunch plus some live rounds in case the bear still wanted anything to do with us.

A few thing that I learned about polar bears today:
Polar bears are considered an umbrella species.  That is, if the bears are OK, the species under them are OK

About 200,000 years ago, polar bears split from brown bears, such as costal brown bears in Alaska, Kodiak bears on Kodiak Island, and the grizzly bear of the interior of Western US and Canada.  Some of the changes aside from the most obvious that their hair turned white was polar bears claws curved from the straight claws of the brown bear, their skin tuned from pink to black and their hair became hollow so that the air inside each hair helps the bear to float.  Brown bears and polar bears are similar enough genetically that they interbreed to produce a hybrid that is fertile and capable of producing offspring unlike some species like a mule.

Polar bear mostly live above the arctic circle.  Churchill where I am is lower than this, but the weather conditions are similar to the arctic and polar bears live along both Hudson Bay and James Bay to the south of us.

Adult males are twice as big as adult female and weight around 1600 pounds and 800 pounds respectively. 

Polar bears have a smaller head and longer neck than other bears.  This feature aids greatly in catching the ringed seals that constitiute almost all of their diet.

Females mature at 5 and males mature at 6 years old and add weight and size until they are 11. 

 Polar bears are hunters and opportunists.  When hunting seals they don't chase them into the water.  They find their breathing holes since every 2 minutes a seal needs to breathe air, and used their curved claws and long necks to catch them as they come up for air. 

Polar bear cubs stay with the moms until they are 2 1/2 years old.  (This is an increase from 1 1/2 years not so long ago).  The female usually has 2-3 cubs, but usually only one to 2 survives the first year of life.

Females live to be 25 and males 18.  Males really beat each other up in competition for breeding with females and after a few years, it really takes a toll on them.

These bears haven't eaten since the ice in Hudson Bay melted in July.  Polar bears do not hibernate in the winter--in fact, that is the time when they hunt and eat to survive the rest of the year. They don't eat until the ice freezes and they can go back to the ice to hunt seals and replenish their fat stores. 

If the female is pregnant, she does not go out onto the ice and hunt.  She goes to the maternity dens that are located inland in what is now Wapusk National Park.  She'll stay in the den and have her babies late December and will stay in the den with them feeding  from her until they emerge in March at about 30# when she immediately travels about 30 miles to the ice and starts to hunt for food.

This is what it look like here as taken through the car window.