2018/10 Churchill trip - Churchill Tundra - 2 |
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Churchill Tundra 2 |
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Tuesday October 23rd
My other boot now had a fractured toe too. It must have been an age-related 
failure. The boot, not mine!
Breakfast ran more smoothly as most of the group arrived early and there were fewer guests there. The morning was colder and much of the snow had turned to ice. We were glad we’d brought our poles. We thought we saw a fox crossing the street, definitely not a bear anyway!
Our luggage was packed for transport to Winnipeg and we were taking our carry-ons on the buggy with us. We met our hotel owner for the first time; he said 350 jobs had disappeared when the port authority had closed.
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Drive from town (0.45) |
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We had the same buggy and driver, with similar seats. We had lost a French lady who’d had travel sickness the previous day from the rolling motion of the buggy. We had gained a representative of Polar Bears International, an organization that promotes the conservation of the bears and the sea ice; they are responsible for the streamed webcasts from Buggy #1.
She soon had an opportunity to tell us all about bear motherhood as our first bear was an Einstein, yes MC2, a mama bear with two cubs. The day was still dark and mama bear stayed well away from us so the photos aren’t great but it was nice to see the cubs. They generally stay away from the males too as they will kill and eat cubs if they have the chance. However it doesn’t happen very often as the males know they can be badly injured by a ferocious mama bear defending her cubs
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Mama bear & cubs (1.30) |
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.Mating takes place in April/May. If the female is healthy and well fed then the egg implants in the fall. She digs a den in a peaty area, possibly in Wapusk national park. Her cubs are born 2 months later and weigh about one pound. When they leave their den in March, they are up to 30 pounds. By the time she leaves the den and takes her family out onto the ice she hasn’t eaten for about eight months. They go back on the ice at about the time that seals are having their pups, giving her a ready source of meat. The cubs live on her milk for about 20 months. The cubs learn everything from her; orphans usually die but sometimes another female will adopt them. The cubs we could see were about ten months old and each weighed about 200 pounds.
The bear population is greatly affected by temperature changes. When Mount Pinatubo blew up in the 90s, global temperatures dipped, the sea ice melted late and refroze early, and the bears were fat and happy. During a recent very warm year, the opposite happened and no cubs were born.
We continued to see more large males like this one. Most had that creamy 
colour but there was one that was almost white, so pale that it almost disappeared as it walked into snowy zones.
This other had just found a comfortable spot amongst the rocks but it would be all too easy to walk through there and step on a sleeping bear.
This other bear was marching across the landscape with some mission in mind known only to bears, but then it picked up some sound or smell from us and took a sharp turn and came over to check us out.
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Day 2 bears (6.31) |
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This bear was walking the shoreline, maybe on the lookout for kelp left by the tide.
At one point our buggy broke through the ice and Neil had to 
back out of the pond we’d dropped into. This bear came over immediately to check out the open water to look probably for fish, but maybe to see if there was any other opportunity.
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Final bears (4.10) |
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The temperature was slightly below freezing but that is warm for a polar bear and this one was stretched out on the ice to cool off. When we showed up it looked to be irritated by all the attention and then looked to be happier as we circled around the pond and had a last view from its good side.
It was getting late and we hadn’t seen any bears in a while and some of the 
group were nodding off, when Neil took us back towards the lodge as bears hang around there because of the food smells. We found a mother and two cubs, but realized they were probably the same ones we’d seen that morning, though there’s no way to be sure. The two cubs are just visible hunkered down behind her.