Canada’s Serengeti
They looked, for all intents and purposes, like prize fighters circling one another in the boxing ring. And when the metaphorical gloves came off, they went at each other, hammer and tong.
A right jab here, a left hook there, followed by an upper cut to the torso. Until they collapsed into a massive furry heap on the Arctic snow.
The combatants we were observing were two enormous young adult polar bears, weighing approximately 400 and 700 pounds, respectively. And as it turned out, they were not combatants at all. Rather these two male bears were displaying a form of skills training. Sparring and honing their skills as they prepared for future dominance and indeed, survival in an often unforgiving habitat.
The “ fight” played out before us for over an hour, with frequent breaks for the bears as the temperature was relatively high for this sort of intense exercise.
“It was a magnificent spectacle to watch. A privilege!” said Esther Da Silva, a tourist from Toronto.
Others in our group of a dozen came from Germany, Texas, Colorado, and from various Canadian provinces.
And this was but one of many bear sightings experienced by guests on the tundra – a moonscape-like environment of Wapusk National Park, just outside Churchill, Manitoba.
It reminded this writer of other, more famous parks around the world. I have been fortunate to view tigers in India, chimps and gorillas in Rwanda, the Big Five on the Serengeti plains and giant tortoises in the Galapagos. But this, one of Canada’s best kept secrets, easily ranks alongside those parks.
And it is only a two hour flight from Winnipeg or Calgary, or three from Toronto or Vancouver. The trip was seamless, well organized and professional. After a night in a Calgary airport hotel, our private chartered flight departed on time without many of the rigours of commercial flights. Once on board, we were served a hot breakfast and our luggage was delivered directly to our hotel. Picked up by our driver and guide, we started our adventure by visiting the town of Churchill and some of its various sites, including the spectacular murals promoting ocean conservation that are painted around town. We were also given introductory talks at the Parks Canada Reception Centre and at Polar Bear International.
We were there with Frontiers North Adventures who have helped pioneer safaris to Churchill over the years and have developed the tundra buggy to transport guests in all sorts of conditions, safely and comfortably. It is like a large truck on tires five and a half feet high, with an open air viewing platform on the back of the vehicle, constructed out of sturdy metal mesh, seating up to 40 passengers. And yes, there is a washroom on board. But perhaps most importantly, they are currently converting their vehicles to electric.
“It was the experience of a lifetime to be so close to the bears – sometimes a few centimetres away,” said Iris Zhang, from Toronto. “It is hard to believe this park is so near to our big cities.”
We saw between 40 and 50 polar bears as we drove around the tundra over a two day period in early November.
It was a spectacle to see these graceful, powerful creatures walking beside us.
Polar bears are found in the frozen wilds of the Arctic – in Canada , Alaska, Greenland, Russia and Norway. It is estimated there are 26,000 Polar Bears, worldwide. And approximately sixty percent of them live in Canada’s Arctic.
But as I watched them there was a sense of not only awe but also an element of shock. Shock that they are at risk, as the sea ice on which they depend for their survival , is fast disappearing.
In Hudson Bay, unlike other polar bear habitat, sea ice naturally disappears in the summer. Hence the bears lose their primary food supply. Historically this has always happened but now it is happening earlier in the year and the ice free area is lasting longer.
And long term research suggests that the bears we are seeing today are spending up to a month longer on shore than did their ancestors. On average, that is 30 days longer without access to food. Polar bears can fast and they are good at gathering and storing fat for lean periods, however we don’t know their limits.
Internationally, polar bears are listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conversation of Nature. The United States lists polar bears as a threatened species
The good news is there is no shortage of ideas and support, whether it’s Western science or traditional Indigenous knowledge. Let’s hope the best and the brightest of us can find a better balance between people and nature and come up with solutions to save the polar bear.
While everything can be seen as being part of the problem, including the transportation used to see the bears, the reality is, the issue is complicated in the abstract. You need boots on the ground to understand the issues. I truly believe that every Canadian needs to see the North to understand what’s at stake. And seeing is believing.
