Number 170 of the 1000 places to see before you die - Polar Bears in Churchill Manitoba, Canada

I was at the end of a round the world trip with the last two flights to take into North America when i jumped on the Boeing from London to head to Toronto. As well as being able to knock off a couple places in the 1000 places to see before you die in Toronto, the timing was also good to head into the tundra of Churchill, in the Canadian province of Manitoba to see the largest population of polar bears outside of the Artic circle.

From late October hundreds of bears congregrate at this remote town, self proclaimed as the Polar Bear Capital of the World, waiting for the bay to freeze completely so that they can cross over and head north into their winter hunting grounds. Churchill has the fastest access on to the ice, which in freezing winter aside from the bears has little other reason for visitation bar the fab food at Gypsy's cafe along with its exotic Portugese son of the owner. Population swells from some 1000 people as more than 8000 tourists trickle into town for polar bear season. With limited accomodation and facilities, the town stretches to breaking point during these two months with every restaurant booked out solid by the tour groups.

The best way to see these bears- and to learn about them- is by a tour ( in fact I think its the only way) and so i signed up with Natural Habitats, one of the world's leaders in nature expenditions led by trained guides. Checking in at Winnipeg I met my tour leader and the other 9 people in the group. The first thing to sort out was a battery for my newly purchased Sony- an upgrade at Heathrow as I thought having a 10* zoom feature would be necessary in order to capture the bears- how wrong I was in this impression I was to find out less than 24 hours later.

An early morning charter flight had us winging up to Churchill some 1900 km away. My group was to stay in the town for the 4 day trip- the 20 others on the tour were to head out to the tundra where they would stay in a semi permanent buggy camp for the entire time. I was feeling a bit knackered from my 19 cities in 6 continents in 32 days, so id picked the town option in the hope that I could have a few massages and do some shopping while I was there.

After a check in at the very rustic motel- replete with a standing 8 foot polar bear and a twinkling plastic Christmas tree in the wooden clad lounge- we had lunch then headed out for a tour of the town. An ancient yellow school bus had been commandered as our means of moving about- let me tell you heating was not one of its features! Churchill was a brisk minus 2 degrees celsius and that was a lunchtime. Nighttime temperatures were expected to drop to minus 23 degrees. Not making it a habit of mine to spend any time in colder climates I was grateful that the organisers had provided outdoor winter jackets and boots- but I still had to supplement this with 2 scarves, 3 layers of shirts, a beannie, thermal underwear and ski socks, in order to stay somewhat warm.

After a tour of the town- about 8 streets, one post office, one bank, a couple of souvenir shops, some run down motels and 4 restaurants, we then headed to the outskirts of town where our driver, Kerry, had been informed that a polar bear was being "moved on." In human speak, that means that the bear, who was merely trying to get to the freezing ice, had come to close to town and needed to be moved in another direction for the safety of the townsfolk. In the distance we heard the pop of air rifles going off as the polar bear rangers kept the bear moving at a steady clip over the snow covered roads and rocks until it was out of town. It was, I admit, pretty thrilling to finally see the world's largest carnivore albeit from a distance of some 600 metres or so as we were not allowed to get between the bear and the rangers' trucks.

After checking we were all suitably frozen to our seats from cold and awe, Kerry then regaled us with stories on polar bear encounters in the town. Everyone was always on alert for the bears in or close to town as they had just come out of their hibernation and were starving. Bears can lose X kilograms during hibernation and the desire to feed, at any cost, can cause conflict with humans. The rangers worked around the clock in shifts, responding to calls from residents waking up to the sound of their garbage bins being overturned, or sighting a bear through the frost of their windows. Or indeed "incidents" like one silly chap who decided to go for a walk down the main drag at night and happened upon a bear (killed and munched on the spot). Rules with polar bears- Do not move and do not play dead!! The rangers apparently get very good at recognising each bear and operate a "three strikes and youre out rule." The third time a bear is caught trespassing, so to speak, close to town they are sedated and moved into the Polar Bear Holding Facility.

This huge drum of a shed lies about 15 minutes drive out of town. Here the bears are segregated into high pens so as to reduce their stress of being close to each other (they are solitary animals and the females with cubs particularly avoid at all costs interactions with male bears who will kill the offspring to bring the female back into a breeding state). They are kept until the Bay has frozen over before being re-released. Apparently the experience of this is enough that they learn not to transgress the following year. In the old days Kerry told us, bears were fed in the shed- but then the following year a number of these bears returned to the shed seeking free handouts. So perhaps they actually are capable of understanding that this is the equivalent of a football player's time on the bench.

We were fortunate enough on the last day to see one of the bears being released. A huge operation that needs to be sponsored by someone due to the cost as the bear needs sedation, wheeling out, careful manouvering onto a large fishing net type of sack which is then roped together, attached to a hook on the bottom of a helicopter, which then slowly ascends and, once the vets have checked that the bear is going to be fine, rises into the distance with a back up helicopter transporting the bear some 30km up the coast.
In this case, we had the pleasure of not only watching the bear going up in the sky, but also Martha Stewart, the cooking tv personality, freshly out of her own "on the bench" seat of 5 months in a federal penitentiary, board her private plane next to the bear and fly off after it for more shots as she had been in town filming for her tv show and had sponsored the bearlift. If you see this programme on her show you might see a person, replete in green parka and black beannie, slightly to the left of the bear when its hanging about 30cm off the ground, jumping up and down waving her arms for the camera- that'll be me!! No doubt I wont make the first cut but hay ho!!

Anyhow, it was now about 4pm and the sun was setting fast so we headed out to the tundra for a night time drive. As always when in the middle of wildlife, security was paramount, so we arrived at the tundra buggy garage where we were only allowed to disembark once a woolly looking man with a large rifle arrived at the front door to walk us the 15 metres to the back of the buggies. With tyres alone at some 2 metres tall- the only way into the buggy was off the concrete bunker that had been specifically constructed for this purpose into the back of the buggies. Holding about 40 people and about 15 metres long, the 9 of us had plenty of room to spread about and take a window each.

And so into the ghostly darkness we went, eddies of snow gently swirling around us, headlights blaring, we rumbled down marked out tracks in the bleakness of the tundra searching for wildlife. It did not take us long before we came across a mother and two cubs- however they are very skittish with babies and she moved quickly out of our range before we could get a good look at her. We then moved out to the permanent tundra buggy motel that Natural Habitats had a license for, and there we had a bit more luck. Hungry bears, attracted by the smell of cooking and looking for some appetizers before the main course of seal arrived, were roving up and down the buggy, some rising up to the windows to peer in at the startled guests eating their night meal. After an hour of watching the action, with the temperature in the buggy plummeting as people lowered their windows to take a volley of photos, we headed back to town.

Being a Friday night, and conscious that I was by far the youngest in my group of fellow explorers, I waived the early to bed instructions and hit the bar of the motel. Like a time warp, it was still faithfully decorated in the 60's style when it had been built. I was told by the bar girl (who didnt look older than 16), that as the motels only really operated for tourist season and were always fully booked there was no point in "funkying them up" she said- bringing me an irish coffee. I then settled down in a rickety old granpa chair to hear the local band- very famous in these parts as they were the only band in town AND had recorded an album play. I have to say they were damm good. I even confess to having tears in my eyes at one stage when they did an amazing cover of Men at Work's song "I come from the land Down Under"  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6oAFlPLGA8). How surreal to be in the middle of nowhere, literally, on a freezing winter night, and hear a Canadian band singing about vegemite!! 
  
The next morning we went out for our first full day drive on the tundra. Action time. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the ground was frozen, my camera was ready- and I was one very excited bunny indeed. The day proved to surpass my expectations. You see I thought that we would see bears at a distance. Instead of which, the bears, who could smell our tasty sandwiches a mile off, could not resist us. Dont get me wrong- this is a very carefully controlled environment. No food is allowed outside the inside of the buggy, no one is allowed to feed the bears or put their arms outside any window (standing up the bears standing up easily reached the bottom window which was not moveable and sat some 3 metres off the ground) and you clearly are never allowed outside your buggy either ( they can run at speeds of 40 km/hour). Each buggy was fitted with an outdoor viewing platform about 3 by 2 metres- metal sides with mesh on the floor so you could see the ground.

And that was my first surprise when outside on this platform. A young female wandered right over to us and spent the next 20 minutes sniffing the air, her huge teeth a few millimetres from our feet, separated only by the wire mesh. At one stage she reared up, placing her massive paws on the sides of the platform with her shiny black nose about 10cm away. They had said not to make any noise when the bears were around, but when she finally sat back on her haunches and looked up at us, you could hear the rushed exhale of air from every one of us.

Its pretty hard to describe the feelings of being so close to such a powerful animal that could kill you with just an accidental swipe of their paws. Given their hibernation and lack of fat on their bodies, you could see the outline of over developed muscles moving under their coats. The heavily rounded hindquarters spoke of the strength they possessed. Massive paws barely made a sound as they traversed on the snow. The need to withstand long distances of travel with uncertain food supplies, had evolved into a massively strong body with a small head. Tiny ears with round intelligent black eyes seemed an afterthought from the overproportioned long nose with its gleaming black tip. Baby pink gums with 15 cm front incisors lay in front of a full set of sharp teeth. Their creamy white coat hang in layers- a shorter coarser coat lying closer to the skin for insulation. Entirely captivating. You wanted to say "here, kitty kitty kitty" and give them a tickle behind their ears. But of course this was the world's most largest carnivore, unfraid of man and they were very hungry.

The next day was adventure time- a helicopter ride over the tundra, a visit to a birthing den, a mushing adventure with huskies. What fun!

It became extremely hard over the next four days to work out just which was the best encounter with the bears. It is very easy to get caught up in the cuteness of them- watching them roll around in the snow, becoming blase about all the times they were pacing alongside and standing up on our buggy, the sheer numbers of them hanging around in frustration for the waters to completely freeze over. Personally, watching two males play wrestle with each other was however the highlight. Fully grown and standing over 3 metres high, two of them decided to pit their strengths against each other in a mock battle. Teeth bared they rose up on their hind legs and repeatedly smashed into each other. A bare 5 metres away you automatically shuddered at the sounds of 600 kilogram bodies colliding into each other. Evenly matched, neither bear gave ground at the meeting of each body. For 40 minutes we watched them rear up, collide, drop to the ground before repeating the process over and over again.

It had made for a magical last day...with tonight's treat- hopefully a magnificent display of the aurora borealis over the tundra... but thats number 168 of the 1000 places to see before you die!