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An account of our trip to this fantastic region of Canada, and our encounters with the majestic Polar Bear.

Churchill, the Polar Bear capital of the world

Djb1166
2004-03-11 16:38:12

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the arrival of the big male bear again.
After a short respite a mother and two first year cubs came by which caused a rush for the windows. Unfortunately this
startled the bear who quickly headed off with her cubs. With the aid of a flood light we were able to follow their progress,
for quite a while, as they headed into the Willows. I found my video camera was the best tool for getting pictures of the
bears at night. It was much better at coping with the low light levels and disturbed the animals less as I was not constantly
setting off a flash gun to get pictures. We finished dinner and headed back across to the other lodge where we sat around
discussing the various sitings that evening. Suddenly Cory came in and asked if we had seen the big bear. The lights were
quickly turned off and there he was, standing by the window looking in, as if he was selecting his next meal! He really
was a beautiful animal, much larger and more muscular than the cubs. He turned and headed round the back of the lodge and
over to the food store where it looked like he might try a forced entry. A shout from Dennis through an open window was all
it took to persuade him to move on, which he did in a hurry. Wow, six different bears in one day!

Another day and another change in the weather. We we're supposed to fly back to Churchill but strong winds and
heavy snow looked like putting a stop to that. Mike and Dennis were still confident that we would fly but after breakfast
the wind and snow reached blizzard proportions so it was just a matter of whether it cleared in time for our departure
after lunch. Despite the blizzard most of us
decided to go out on another short hike prior to the expected transfer to Churchill. This proved to be a real experience
as we could hardly see anything by the time we headed off. Fortunately the Bears tend to get their heads down ...