Polar Bears of Churchill
In early November, I took a group of four photographers to Churchill for their first experience in the Arctic. Churchill sits on the southwestern edge of Hudson Bay on the far northern reaches of the Canadian Province of Manitoba. Churchill has long boasted about being the polar bear capital of the world, and with good reason. About 1,000 polar bears call this northern Canadian region home. In comparison, there are only about 800 full-time human residents. Yup, the bears outnumber the people!
Mother bears give birth in dens not far from Hudson Bay. Some bears will spend the summers foraging for berries and other small samplings of food in the tundra and spruce forest surrounding Hudson Bay. The peak polar bear viewing season for this region, however, is late October through mid-November when the bears arrive along the coast of Hudson Bay to wait for the water to turn to ice. When that happens, these apex predators venture out onto the barren, frozen water to hunt for their favorite meal, seal. In the meantime, they pass the time around the Churchill area, hopefully staying out of trouble.
I love the cold and photographing white animals on a white landscape. I was a little nervous, however, about the weather during the Churchill trip this year. Photos coming out of Churchill just days before our arrival showed brown, snowless terrain.
Historically, the ice arrives on the bay around November 7, but can happen any time up until mid-December. Climate change, however, has caused the freeze-up to happen later and later. It can make planning a trip difficult but my local guides were spot on for estimating the freeze-up date for our trip, which took place November 7-13, 2021. Schedule a trip as close to the water freeze-up but not after. Closer to the freeze-up date provides a better chance for snow on the ground and an abundance of polar bears milling around. Schedule your trip too late and you run the risk of bears being inaccessible on the ice. The snow arrived a day before we landed on the Churchill tarmac and bears were plentiful. The water started showing signs of freezing with the early form of grease ice (the first stages of freezing when the surface of the water gets a thick, slushy coating) on November 11. It took several more weeks for the ice to freeze enough for the large mammals to travel on it.
If you are interested in joining me on a polar bear photo tour, email me or signup on my polar bear photo tour page.
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