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Churchill, Manitoba, Canada
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7 November 2007 | ||
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After a brief sojourn in London and Toronto to visit my father I was on to the next main stop in my adventure – the Polar Bears in Churchill, Manitoba in the far north of Canada. The trip had been recommended to me by Conrad of Extraordinary Expeditions (who in fact helped organized the whole shebang) and booked with Natural Habitat, an excellent operator who specialize in ecotourism. I had been looking forward to this for quite a long time and in no way did it disappoint. During my 5 days in Churchill we saw at least 40 different bears (hard to count as we so many each day) and it was essentially divided into two parts – the official tour staying in the Tundra Lodge and theunofficial two days whilst in Churchill prowling around a dog farm prowling for bears. The Tundra Lodge itself is run by Great White Bear Tours but Natural Habit appear to book it out for the whole season. It is akin to a very tall train with attached sleeper cars that is parked for the whole 7 week season in an area where the bears first congregate before heading out onto the ice. Historically Churchill had a bad reputation due to tourists coming to see bears hanging around the town garbage dump but those days are long gone (though some bears do wander into town and are sent straight to the Bear Jail before being airlifted out of town). The bears themselves congregate in the area as due to the number of rivers in the area, this part of Hudson bay is often the first part to freeze in the winter, giving hungry bears who have probably not eaten for six months earlier access to their main source of food, the plethora of seals out in the bay. As the winter is their primary feeding season Polar bears do not hibernate as other bears do, but they do go through a sluggish period in the summer as they struggle to find food and hence lose weight and muscle tissue. Thus, before heading out onto the ice for feeding they must get back into shape and this leads to some intense sparring sessions between the big males, and the first morning at the lodge we were fortunate enough to see quite a lot of action. Two bears started their dance on the ice not too far away and it reached its zenith when a third bear decided he wanted to referee the encounter. Later on a fourth bear joined in in a tag-team style as at least two bears were sparring for more than 90 minutes. I ended up setting my personal record for number of photographs taken in a single day. The early winter is normally a period of heavy cloud and snow so it is not often that you get good light, but when it does come it is spectacular as the sun remains low in the sky thereby giving the effect of golden hour all day. And so it happened on our second morning that the sun finally sun finally made an appearance and for a few hours we were able to get some exquisite shots. Although Churchill itself is an interesting town it was not what I was up there for and from another photographer I had heard of a guy who raises Canadian Eskimo Dogs (formerly called Huskies). So whilst the rest of the group went on a couple of tours of the town I got in contact with Brian (a real character) and the first day was able to tag along with him and his assistant (oddly enough a Kiwi by the name of Caleb) plus a German film crew producing a childrens film and on the second day to borrow the truck of a friend of Brians. Absolutely spectacular, especially as the first day was by far the best weather whilst I was there. It also gave me the opportunity to get out of the vehicle and shoot from a low angle which is definitely not possible with an organized tour. At one point we were just over 30 feet from a mother and cub and in fact the cub game within 6 feet of another photographer, [prompting a round of warning shots (with blanks). I also spent some time with the dogs themselves Brians farm, The majority of the animals are chained up as they would otherwise they would constantly be fighting, but there are 5-6 of them on patrol duty – interesting enough these are all females as if they were male the resultant chaos between a horny male and a chained up female can only be imagined… The bears themselves wander around the farm and though they would love to get hold of a dog they are incapable due to the speed and ferociousness of the patrol animals, so they choose to sit at a distance looking hungeringly at all of this potential food. A comment about the curious nature of the bears. Often they will come up to vehicles such as the Tundra Buggies or the Lodge or one of our vehicles. The main reason for this appears that they simply want to eat us – Polar Bears and Crocodiles are indeed the only animals on the planet who actually see humans as natural prey. Which can be a little bit disconcerting, especially when I was standing outside of the vehicle taking pictures and a bear started heading towards me from 30 feet away. I would take some shots and then quickly re-enter the vehicle and the bear would be disappointed and turn away. I would then get back out and he would turn back to me again. And again… The cold. The one thing which could be tough was the cold as I tended to stay outside as much as possible as it was completely impractical to bring the cameras in and out of the vehicle as they would completely fog up and be useless for 10-15 minutes which could have been disastrous. And whilst the beauty of the sunlight is what I wanted it also caused the temperatures to plummet and the first day at Brian’s farm was at least -20 degrees Celsius. Given that much of Manitoba can experience -50 in the heart of winter, I could at least console myself that it was not so bad… I will very definitely be back. | ||
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Current Comments6 comments so far (post your own)
Fabulous photos. So many great ones of the bears in natural poses. I loved the bear and dog, the ptarmigan and the resting bear especially. Posted by adrienne on  great photos the clarity unbelievable. captured the beauty of the tundra and the bears Posted by jinx on Fantastic photos...loved the pup with snow on his face. Thanks so much for sharing !! Posted by Shelly on Thank you for sharing. Beryl will be posting her best photos on the agreed web site in a couple of weeks. We love the bear and the dog ! Posted by Fred Everett on hi per Posted by aj on Excellent photographs. Seeing them I think I will give up now. Posted by Bernard Solca on |
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