Polar Bears of Churchill Blog- July 18, 2006

What a difference a garbage dump makes. Last year was pretty normal, sometimes you could run into a polar bear at the dump or occasionally see one lying on the coast but you a lot of them just camped out in the willows near the dump, a nice covert place to spend the day. This year is something quite different.

Today, we went for a drive along the coast to check out if the rumors of mass bear activity were true. Wow, were they true. All told we ran into ten different bears between the airport and halfway point (we did not even reach the site of the new recycling centre!)

The day started with two bear sparring in Hudson Bay. These two were wading neck deep in the bay, wrestling, mouthing, punching, body slamming, you name it. Pretty amazing since it was about 17-18C here today.

They were probably siblings, maybe two or three year old 'cubs' since a female was swimming near them, eventually coming ashore when they would not stop fighting. She found a spot on the sand and watched them, nervous and annoyed, maybe a little glad that she will push them away and head back on her own pretty soon.

Soon, a large male (likely 1,000+ lbs) swam by, creating an unintentional disturbance to their splashings. However, he was intent on some destination to the east and once he swam intently by (acutally, through) they resumed their playfighting once again. This sparring continued for at least an hour.

We skirted the coast and pulled up on a beach hoping to 'head him off at the pass' and catch another glimpse of him and what we found was a mother and two 'coys' or cubs of the year, investigating an old metal structure on the coast before continuing down the coast.

Soon, the big male came back into view still purposefully swimming, however as he passed our little family came back into view, apparently deciding that a swim was a nice idea. However, they swam right in front and around of this big male.

Females usually keep their cubs away from male bears, wary of these lumbering, predatory hulks. But, confident or crazy, this one took her family right by him, almost baiting him. And, of course, it worked. His interest piqued, he relented from his seemingly unrelenting path and turned on her.

Chasing her cubs through the water, he closed in and forced her hand. She turned and lunged right at him, meeting his seal-breath head-on. One or maybe both of them uttered something between lion's roar and a wild boar but whatever it was, it left us uttering absolutely nothing but 'wow'.
The drama over, the continued their afternoon swim as though nothing had happened at all.

A friend of mine insisted that the closure of the dump would completely change the dynamics of Churchill's polar bears. So far it appears he is right.