Polar Bears of Churchill
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Category Archives: Polar Bears of Churchill
Polar Bear Blog – Polar Bears and Ice Scars
The ice looks to be fairly good this year across much of the arctic and most reports are of a late spring (there was just a blizzard in Churchill yesterday…) so that’s more good news for the bears. There is a nice ‘floe edge’ near Churchill right now, some pictures of seals basking in the sun are floating around. At this time for year, seals both will haul out on the ice to warm up … Continue reading
Polar Bear Blog – Different Polar Bears, Different Places
Well, my brain is all twisted up after that trip! I’ll try to be a bit more eloquent than my last post but the message is still the same… I was pretty anti-hunting before this trip (and I guess I still am) but, man, there is something about a polar bear hunt that really gets inside you. Roland and I tracked bears for almost two weeks, following pressure ridges and open leads on the sea … Continue reading
Polar Bear Blog – Onward to Ulukhaktok
On my way to Ulukhaktok for a couple weeks to look for polar bears and wolves and stuff, pretty excited about it. Ulukhaktok, roughly translating as ‘way harder to pronounce than Holman’, is one of my favourite arctic places. Ulukhaktok, formerly called Holman, is a small community (maybe 300 people?) on the southwest corner of Victoria Island. The name actually translates to ‘place where material for Ulus is found’ but I think that’s actually the … Continue reading
Posted in Canadian Arctic, Churchill Manitoba News, Climate Change and Polar Bears, Polar Bear News, Polar Bears of Churchill
Tagged arctic, beaufort sea, grolar bear, holman, northwest passage, polar bear alley, polar bear blog, polar bear grizzly hybrid, polar grizz, sea ice, ulukhaktok, vitoria island
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Polar Bear Blog – Blame Canada
Well, it seems to be a familiar theme these days but Canada seems to be the polar bear ‘bad guy’ again. Nikita Osyanikov, a polar bear researcher from Russia, is quoted in the media and saying the Russian polar bear hides are often tagged as ‘Canadian’ so that they can be legally sold. You see, polar bear hunting in Russia has been banned since, I believe, 1957 – part of their initial moves to conserve … Continue reading
Posted in Canadian Arctic, Churchill Manitoba News, Churchill Polar Bears, Climate Change and Polar Bears, Polar Bear News, Polar Bears of Churchill
Tagged arctic bear, churchill polar bears, CITES listing, polar bear, polar bear alley, polar bear blog, polar bear habitat, polar bear sport hunt, polar bear tours, russia polar bears, sea ice tour
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Polar Bear Blog – Fred Bruemmer’s The Arctic
Fairly often, I find myself picking up one of Fred Bruemmer’s books and scanning through them again, even though I have read all of them over and over and over. Bruemmer was one of the first modern arctic explorers, environmentalists and writers, travelling the arctic in the 1960s and 1970s as well as one of the first polar bear photographers at Cape Churchill. An amazing life and an amazing writer. His work also puts some … Continue reading
Posted in Bear Season, Canadian Arctic, Cape Churchill, Churchill Manitoba News, Climate Change and Polar Bears, Polar Bear News, Polar Bears of Churchill
Tagged arctic, churchill manitoba, polar bear alley, polar bear blog, polar bear habitat, polar bears churchill, polar bears' habitat, sea ice, sea ice arctic, seal
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Polar Bear Blog – Spring Seals, Wolves and Rangers
Its hunting time in the arctic. Leads, temporary cracks in the ice, have opened up and there are some nice floe edges around – where the ice meets the open ocean. Bears, seals and everything gather around these areas, its a ‘busy’ place. And, of course, out here you find seals giving birth in snow dens and polar bears looking for seals giving birth in snow dens. It is a bit of a mixed bag … Continue reading
Posted in Canadian Arctic, Churchill Manitoba News, Climate Change and Polar Bears, Polar Bear News, Polar Bears of Churchill
Tagged arctic, canadian rangers, churchill manitoba, churchill manitoba news, floe edge, military exercise, move churchill, polar bear alley, polar bear blog, polar bear news, polar bears, polar bears churchill, sea ice
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Polar Bear Blog – Motherhood
For polar bears, motherhood actually starts in mid-September with pregnant females nestled into an earthen maternity den and the three month pregnancy just beginning. Near Churchill, cubs are born in early to mid-December once the den has become covered and insulated by a layer of snow. Less than one kilogram (2.2 lbs) at birth, they are blind, lightly furred and utterly helpless. There are usually two cubs born, sometimes just one if the mother is … Continue reading
Posted in Canadian Arctic, Churchill Manitoba News, Climate Change and Polar Bears, Polar Bear News, Polar Bears of Churchill
Tagged churchill manitoba, mothers and cubs, polar bear alley, polar bear blog, polar bear news, polar bears of churchill, wapusk national park, watchee lodge
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Polar Bear Blog – We Learned Something About Bears!
Another new polar bear/sea ice study is out and this one is actually pretty good. Like, I actually learned something from reading it. I mean this study is actually about bears!!! Here is a link to the paper – it comes from the University of Alberta, authored by Seth Cherry with Derocher, Thiemann and Lunn. It takes an in-depth look at just when females bears (the only ones they can follow with radio collars) come … Continue reading
Posted in Canadian Arctic, Churchill Manitoba News, Climate Change and Polar Bears, Polar Bear News, Polar Bears of Churchill
Tagged churchill manitoba, churchill polar bears, hudson bay, polar bear alley, polar bear blog, polar bear research, polar bears international, polar bears of churchill, survival of the fattest
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