| Polar
Bears of Churchill - Summer on Land
 The
ice usually lasts well into summer but, by the end of July, the
bears are back on shore. As wind and ocean currents push the dwindling
ice floes down the coast, the polar bears begin to swim ashore.
This begins a minimum three month ‘fast’ where the
bears will not have access to their main food source.
Pregnant
females and mothers with cubs come ashore first. They leave the
ice as it passes Wapusk National Park and the maternity denning
area. This can be up to two weeks prior to the final breakup,
occurring near Cape Tatnam and the Manitoba/Ontario border.
They
do this for several reasons. One, females are fairly site specific,
many of them return to an area within forty kilometres (25 miles)
of their birthing den. Also, it seems the extra seals are just
not worth the extra distance. It is believed that bears kill a
seal, on average, every five days. The energy acquired from another
couple seals are not worth another couple hundred kilometre walk
back to the denning area.
It is the large males that ride the dwindling ice to the bitter
end, coming ashore in the southwest corner of Hudson Bay. From
here, they begin their plodding migration back to the beach ridges
of Cape Churchill.
 Along
the way, they gather along the spits and gravel ridges along the
coast, basking in the cool winds coming off the water. While looks
may be deceiving, the living is not easy in the summer time. These
large males are merely seeking temporary relief from temperatures
that can reach over 30C (90F) and biting insects that can be found
in unreasonable and unrelenting proportions.
Uncommon
in most polar bear populations, the largest males may gather in
groups of up to fifteen but usually ranging from two to six bears.
How these groupings fit in to the complicated hierarchy of polar
bears remains to be seen. Polar Bears International is working
with Parks Canada to establish remote control cameras at Cape
Churchill, within Wapusk National Park, as a means of further,
non-intrusive research into the bears’ summer home.
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