A Beary Fun Day!

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Today was Tundra Buggy Day 2.  The temperature dropped, and we had snow overnight,  but there was a bit of sunshine this morning, so it made the weather seem much better.   The tundra looked so different with the dusting of snow, and it wasn’t as easy to spot the white arctic hares--every snow covered rock looked like a white bunny.  The water along the tundra began to freeze with the colder temperature; and when we sloshed through the water in the buggy, it looked like panes of glass as we broke the ice layer.  

Our guide Luke filled us with info about bears, wildlife, the area, etc. etc.  as we travelled the tundra trails.  Most of these trails were built by the military when this was a rocket training and military operations training center from 1942 to 1977.  I’m not sure how Luke knew where we were going, as half of the trails are underwater and all of the land looks the same.  The trees give an indication of the direction of prevailing winds. At one time, he took us into the Hudson Bay, which abuts the edge of Nunavut…a remote northern province of Canada.   Those of us with travel maps, can now fill in a province that very few people get to complete!  

We did spot a huge polar bear moseying along the brush, and we were able to watch him wander around a large lake.  His paws are so big, you could see the snow attached to the bottom, as if he had snow shoes on! What a beautiful part of nature to observe. We saw a small lemming scurry through the brush, but didn’t see much other wildlife, other than that inside the tundra buggy.  After staring so hard at the landscape, and spotting polar rocks, we all began to get slap happy!  We did learn alot about polar bears.  These bears can grow to be 1300 lbs!  The bears come to Churchill because the sea ice on the Hudson Bay is the first to form and allows them to get out and hunt their main food source…seals.  Because the polar bear population in Churchill is so large when they gather in the fall, bear traps are placed near the city to prevent the bears from getting too close.  If a bear is captured in one of the traps, or gets around the traps and reaches the town, it is put into Polar Bear Jail.  They keep the bears in this holding facility for 30 days, without food, to discourage them from re-entering the area.  Each bear is marked with a bright color on its back—first offense is green, second is yellow, and third is red.  If a bear is captured in the city limits 3 times, it is destroyed.  Our guide told us he thought there were less than 8 bears currently in the jail.  Luckily, they didn’t keep any of us at the holding facility!  On the way back to the hotel, we saw the tundra buggies transporting pieces of a lodge going out to be placed for guests coming in the next few weeks.  We hope they too have a “beary” good time with the Polar Bears!