Churchill, Canada. Home to the biggest land carnivore of the world, the Polar Bear.
My first encounter with these incredible animals was in 2018 on a trip to Greenland, watching them from our boat. Even though they were pretty far away, watching them through my binoculars was a feeling like no other. Since then, I had always dreamt of getting more intimate close encounters with polar pears. And in November of 2021 that dream became reality.
Churchill, Manitoba, Canada is known as the polar bear capital of the world. There are no connecting roads that lead to the small town so the only way to get there is by a 48-hour train-ride from Winnipeg, or a short flight. Churchill is located at the Hudson bay, every winter the bay freezes and the bears head out onto the ice to hunt seals. For the bears, there isn’t much food on land that gives them any nutritional value so in autumn they all migrate towards the bay and wait for it to freeze.
On my first day we went out at around 7:30 am to look for the bears. After just one hour in we were extremely lucky and came across two male Polar bears (also referred to as boars) that were sparring. Sparring is a form of play behavior that prepares them for later when they fight for breeding rights or maybe to defend a good spot for hunting. We watched these two bears spar for about 1 1/2 hours before they went in to take a nap.
We had many encounters with bears, but there are two that stood out the most to me and that have left a permanent mark on me. The first one was with a huge male. We found him a day resting underneath some bushes. After waiting a while, we decided to leave him and check back the next day. The next morning, we headed out and went straight to him. He had moved out of the bushes and was laying in an open area. He had such a unique look about him. Every time he looked right at me, his eyes pierced through me like sharp needles. I can’t describe the feeling I got being so close to him. It wasn’t a feeling of fear, but more a feeling of respect. They are such relaxed animals, and he gave me a feeling of calmness. He stood up, shook off the snow that had piled up on him and walked straight towards me, looking right into my camera. My heart stopped and for a moment I was frozen in place. I looked at my guide to see what she was doing and if I should return to the car, but the bear turned and went back into the bushes. My heart was beating incredibly fast, but I turned around with the biggest smile on my face. Every time I think back to this encounter, I immediately get goosebumps.
The other encounter was with what we believe to be a female. It can be tricky to identify the gender of polar bears so mostly we just went after size. This bear was quite small. She was sitting at the beach looking for seaweed. We parked the car a little further along the beach to have her walk towards us. She sat down not far from us and started eating some washed up seaweed. About an hour before, we had a short encounter with another bear that was close by in the area. I was watching her dig when my guide tapped me on my shoulder and pointed toward some bushes where another bear emerged, the one we had seen an hour ago. He laid down on the ice and took a nap. Neither one of the two bears acknowledged the other’s presence. A few minutes later another bear emerged from the bushes, headed straight towards the female that was digging on the beach. She started lifting her head and sniffing the air when she saw the other bear. She stood up and they both came quite close. She stood her ground, never taking her eyes of him. He circled around her, this went on for about 10 minutes, and then went the other way. I could feel the tension of these bears through every fiber in my body. It was incredible having three bears in the same area at the exact same time.
Due to climate change and global warming the bay freezes up later and later each year. Not having eaten for over 150 days the bears are just waiting to get onto the ice and hunt seals. On land there is not much for them to eat. Often they will waste more energy obtaining food on land, then they will eventually get out of it. One food source that the bears can find on land are berries. During my five day stay in Churchill, every day that we went out we found one bear that was always in the exact same area, digging, looking for berries and grass. We also came across a bear on the beach that was digging for hours and hours, eating and licking seaweed that was washed up on the shore. Because the freeze up is starting to be delayed each year, the bears have to come up with alternative food sources that will get them through until the freeze up happens. But our climate is changing faster than the bears can adapt, making it very hard for them.
The small community of Churchill has adapted very well to living among these apex predators. They have a polar bear hotline where people can call when they see a bear close to the village. They immediately send out a team to scout the area and if necessary, they will capture the bears, hold them for a short while in the so-called ‘bear jail. They are then being relocated and sent back out into the wild further away from town. Organizations such as Polar Bears International work every day to ensure safety for the bears and the people, so a conflict-free life among each other is possible. On our last day, before we headed to the airport, we found a polar bear close to the train tracks by the town. Our guide called in the polar bear alert hotline and in less than three minutes they were there. It is incredible to see the dedication of all the people in Churchill, that work to ensure a future for these animals.
