Don't Miss the Culture for the Trees

Sorry for butchering the expression "missing the forest for the trees" but I've found when planning a wildlife or wilderness trip that its easy to get caught up in experiencing the natural wonder you came for, and forgetting to leave time to learn about the people and culture that also make the place special.  

Some other places we've traveled where we saw amazing wildlife, but also benefited from learning about the people and culture.

We've been fortunate to travel to lots of places where there are some incredible natural phenomena and wildlife to observe. The wildlife of Galapagos Islands and Africa, the vast isolation of the arctic, dense rain forests in Central America, and the beautiful empty white sand motus of French Polynesia.  All of it was beautiful, and while it was possible to be dropped down into these pristine environments without ever seeing a local village or person, in my experience all of those places were more amazing when I got the opportunity to meet local people and experience some of local life.  We visited a village in Zambia, where Wilderness Safaris introduced us to a local man who coincidentally, happened to be wearing a tee shirt from a coffee shop in our hometown that had been donated to the local used clothing market in town.  In Ecuador, we were able to meet artisans in the high Andes that provided a rich cultural back drop to our later visits to uninhabited islands of the Galapagos and we met guides who showed us how to rock a pareo and how they free dive in the Pacific. 

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Our driver Stephanie explains the finer points of curling.

We were fortunate during our recent trip to Churchill Manitoba with Natural Habitat, the guides made an effort during our short trip to help us understand how remote and isolated life can be in Churchill.  But we also spent half a day seeing how local people live in their community, what challenges they have- the produce section of the one grocery store in town could fit in my carry on bag, and also the joys.  Our bus driver, Stephanie invited us to the indoor community center and onto the curling ice for a quickie lesson about how this nationally regarded sport is played! We were encouraged to think about how difficult life might be if you have to wait for a weekly train to arrive with what you might need, or if a hungry polar bear might wander into your yard. We were fortunate that in addition to helping us see amazing wildlife, our guides also introduced us to the characters, places and stories that make Churchill the unique place it is!  

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Spending time in town allowed us to see and discuss with locals how they manage to live with the largest land predators wandering into their back yards!

To see more photos from our trip to Churchill, please see our Trip Report Here Today I added our last half day, when we spent time in the town of Churchill learning about the people, places and culture. Without that perspective, I believe even with great sightings of the polar bears, we would have missed seeing much of what makes this place special and unique!

Polar Bears of Churchill Trip Report

When you tell people you are headed to Manitoba Canada...in November...they look at you like there might be something just a little bit wrong with you.  When your pre trip documentation warns you to bring all your warmest clothing and ALSO promises to provide you with an additional huge parka and boots, you begin to wonder if a trip to Aruba might have been the better choice. But then you spot your first polar bear; at first almost indistinguishable from the glacial rocks studding the frozen ponds, but then it heaves its bulk up to stretch and starts plodding on enormous paws across the white, undulating tundra towards your specially designed polar rover.  It curiously sniffs, lifting its massive head towards you, you look into the eyes of one of the biggest predators on the planet and see a curious, intelligent animal making a life on the ice and snow. Then you realize you are blessed to have this moment in the wild with one of the worlds most incredible animals. And for me, I'd trade every umbrella drink, and all the white sandy beaches of the Caribbean for this amazing moment! 

There is no doubt that a trip to Churchill Manitoba to search for polar bears in the wild is not most people's idea of a vacation, but for people who love wildlife and learning about cultures and environments different from their own, it is an amazing adventure!  I've started posting our trip report with more photos and video being added every day trip report Click Here

No parkas or boots needed to enjoy Jeff's photos from our recent Natural Habitat Adventures Polar Bears of Churchill trip in November!

Also, see our other Polar Bears of Churchill blog posts Polar Bear Mama Drama and Polar Bears of Churchill Day 1

 A gallery of photos depicting the experience of going to seek out polar bears in Churchill

Polar Bear Mama Drama!

Every once in a while when I'm out in the field with my dog, Daisy, she spots some small critter and turns it into a snack before I can say "NO" and before it can run to safety, I'm reminded how harsh life is for wild animals. I tell Daisy not to chase the poor little animals that have to struggle in harsh conditions for a meal when she gets 2 squares, plus snacks and a temperpedic bed by the heater each day, but she never listens, it's instinct for predators to chase prey. And even top predators face dangerous, life threatening conditions.  
 

While traveling in Churchill Manitoba to see the polar bears, I was reminded of this harsh reality during a particularly harrowing scene that played out from the windows of the large rovers where we're observing the bears. 

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The Polar Rovers used by The Great White Bear Company to take small groups out into the Wapusk National Park allow visitors to observe bears from outdoor raised decks on the rear of the vehicle.

Polar bears give birth to their young in dens where they are born blind, deaf and hairless, not completely ready to survive outside the womb. There, the mother bear nurses them without ever leaving until they are ready to leave the den. Once the mother leaves the den the cubs, they will live with her, learning and being protected for up to 2 years. In the first year, they must wait at the shores of the Hudson Bay for the ice to form, where she will teach them how to hunt for seals, which bear will eat all winter until the ice breaks up.  Polar bears then spend a few months on land between July and November without eating at all, waiting for the ice to form again and begin feeding again. 

hudson bay
 

The Hudson Bay will be covered in ice by mid November, when the polar bears will head out onto the ice to feed on seals. This view of the bay is from a public park, where a small decommissioned tug boat was left in the park by the shore as a shelter if a polar bear is in the area. Its said polar bears don't like stairs, so being up on the tug would provide some safety until the bear moves on.

The biggest threats to cubs are male polar bears who, if hungry enough, will predate on the small cubs, or try to separate them from their mother in order to cause her to go into estrus so they can mate with her and produce their own cubs. There is a reason we humans wise "mother bear" to describe our own maternal feelings of protection when our children are hurt or threatened, and the mother polar bear will fight with all she has to protect her cubs, according to our guide.Katie, on our Natural Habitat trip. 

One afternoon, we we traveling along trying to spot polar bears when we spotted a mother bear snoozing cozily with 2 cubs of the year (under 1 year old) in a stand of low willows. They did not move a muscle and unlike other mother and cub groups we had seen, did not even stir to rearrange their pile of polar bear bodies during the time we watched them.
 

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A mamma bear napped with her two small cubs by the edge of a lake in a small stand of willows.

After a short while we noticed a large male bear walking in the other direction from them start to lift his head and sniff. He plodded along at steady but slow pace, that our guide told us is the ideal pace to minimize energy expenditure and keep from overheating. But the large male clearly scented the mother and cubs and was changing direction, following his nose heading towards them.

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A large male heads across the icy lake.

As he made his way closer and closer to them, our group of 16 stood silently with cameras and binoculars raised wondering how this would unfold. Surely, the small mother bear and her small cubs would smell him coming, and move on. But even we humans with poor noses could tell by the Arctic wind on our faces, that she was upwind of the huge male, and his scent would not carry to her. We had seen a mother bear hustle much larger cubs off from a male much farther away earlier in our trip. But we did not think she could outrun this huge bear with these small cubs if she didn't get moving soon, and yet she and the tiny cubs slept on as the large male moved closer.

Our group, prohibited from making even a whisper in the presence of the bears for fear of habituating them to human voices, looked from lumbering male bear to the snoozing family with increasing dread. We all knew this was the wild, that nature would have play out however it was meant to be. But none of us was rooting for the male bear, and we hoped we would not see a bloody scene. 

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The male bear started using his nose to track down the mother and cubs.

As the tension built, cameras and eyes swung from the male, to the family, and back, the male bear closing fast, not a quarter mile from the vulnerable cubs, when suddenly she awoke and broke into a run in the same moment. Her cubs did not need even a second to mimic their mother, literally up and running at full speed from sound asleep in less time than our eyes could register. 

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The mother bear was up and she and her cubs did not take long to start running away quickly.

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Mother and cubs at a dead run.

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The family ran towards our tundra vehicle at top speed

The mama and cubs tore through the willowy tundra and stopped only for the briefest moment right behind our rover, pausing so quickly to stand on hind legs to sniff for the male still plodding after her, that her cub tumbled into her and toppled to the ground. They immediately hustled off towards the shoreline at a fast clip.

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The mother stood on hind legs to spot and smell where the male was behind her.

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The male bear continued to follow his nose towards the female bear.

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The male lumbered by us, right behind the rover, never changing his pace, but clearly scenting the mother and cubs along the way. After passing the road, he seemed to have expended enough energy, his close call with the young cubs thwarted, he nestled into the willows to cool off. 

The mother and young cubs continued their brisk pace away from the large male, their nap interrupted, looking for another place to rest until the ice forms on the Hudson Bay and seal hunting can begin, he huge maletmaking the cubs less vulnerable as prey themselves. 

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The huge male bear, seemed spent and lay down in the willow to rest.