Churchill Polar Bear Photo Expedition

Hey, Donald. That bear is back at l five here, but it's out in the rocks a little bit. Copy that. Looks like a mama cub. We're just slowly moving them away from the dump here. Mom and Cab are moving together away from me. There's this little town in Northern Canada on the edge of Hudson Bay called Churchill. And it sits in the middle of an annual polar bear migration, so locals call it the polar bear capital of the world. The town of Churchill is The most amazing little subarctic community. So there's just over eight hundred people that live here year round. And there's thirteen streets completely covered in snow for eight months of the year. It's on the edge of the connected world and the Arctic world that's off the road system. It draws a a hearty, friendly type of person to live here. Unparalleled freedom, unparalleled safety, pristine wilderness. If you're in the states, you're talking to somebody and you say Churchill, they go, where's that? And you go, oh, in Manitoba. You know, and then they go, oh, where's Manitoba? And it's got, like, gravel roads and a few quirks, you know, to the locals here and there. There's a few options for stores and tons of options for friends. That was pretty cheesy. So you can't drive here, but you can hop on a train or a plane, and you can get here and have this absolutely amazing wilderness experience that is so different from anywhere else. Churchill Barna has the best whale watching in the world. Like, there's nowhere else in the world that that you can see and encounter what we do here on a daily basis. I'll tell them, oh, yeah. Like, it's possible that you'll see a thousand belugas in one day. And they're like, what? No way. And I'm like, yeah way. It's it's possible. To be in the water with beluga whales is literally like good soul medicine. Churchill is also one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights. It looks like magic. It it doesn't look like that it doesn't even seem natural, to be honest. This magic, this thing has happened, this symphony almost has happened right in front of your eyes. I know there's a scientific explanation, but that doesn't explain the magic that's happening in your soul. The colors that you see, like red and blues and greens and purples and pinks, they're just so bright and colorful. It's truly mesmerizing. When they're dancing and they're shining, you know, it's there's nothing like it. The number one pastime of people in Churchill is driving around looking for stuff. This is their home and what do you do to appreciate it? You go look at it. And it could range from watching lemmings run across the road all the way up to the the mighty polar bear. Once you get out on the tundra and you're sharing space with polar bears, it is a mind blowing experience. It's pretty intense. It's a it's a really intense feeling seeing a polar bear, especially if you get to see it up close. Oh, it makes your heart race. It's it's it's it's almost a feeling of awe. Polar bears are just they're such a beautiful creature. They're fluffy. They're playful. They're very intelligent. I actually saw a mom in two cubs today, and it just kinda took my breath away. They're curious and they're they're wonderful animals, but they're to be respected. They're lumbering. They're goofy. They're terrifying. Up here in Churchill, if you look out the window at two AM, there's a chance you are going to see an eight hundred pound bear walking down the street twenty feet away from your house. Coexisting with polar bears is pretty unique. I mean, you always have your head on a swivel looking behind you. In Churchill, you almost get like a sixth sense about polar bear security and polar bear safety. You need to move with intent. You need to plan what you're doing, and you need to really consider if you're gonna do it safely and how you're gonna do it safely. And that's just the reality living in Churchill, which is directly on that migration path for this entire population of bears. Polar bears are in Churchill simply because Churchill is where the ice freezes first in the Hudson Bay. The sooner the bears can get out on the ice, the sooner they can feed. They wanna get back out there to use that sea ice platform to hunt seals. The most important time for them out on the sea ice is roughly when the seal pups are born. And so that is the most important month for them to be able to put on fat. And they have this amazing ability to convert seal fat to polar bear fat. All those, new seals are out there. They don't don't they're not familiar with the threats of polar bears. They're kinda like McNuggets out there that the, the polar bears can go pick up. So that's when bears put on a lot of their fat as you're getting through towards the end of winter, and they can really pack on the pounds. So they're really built for this feast and famine type of eating. They store the energy that they get when they when they do hunt a seal and are able to use that during the times when they're not able to hunt. We know we're losing a lot of sea ice on the Hudson Bay every year. I've heard, you know, thirty days of sea ice lost in the past thirty years, and it's a real challenge because that's like polar bear habitat. When the bay gets to about fifty percent ice cover, the bears will start coming on shore. We used to like to say July, but this year, it was about a month early. So we've already got these bears on land for a pretty significant amount of time beyond what they would normally be accustomed to. Bear human conflict increases as you get more and more people into an equation that has more and more bears in it, and the chances for dramatic conflict go up. From a human perspective, it is really hard to live without being interesting to a polar bear. I mean, we smell interesting ourselves. We eat stuff that smells interesting. We make waste that smells interesting. Navigating that is all about trying to to think about what would make a polar bear want to come here, and maybe are there things we can do that will make it less likely for a polar bear to want to come there? I think it's the more bears there are on land, but the more important it's gonna get. Polar bears are a beautiful creature, but ultimately, you do have to be careful with them. So you have to respect them and their space and, you know, and they have to respect you in your space. So that's why we have the polar bear alert program in Churchill here that deals with bears that come into the community or, consistent problem bears. The polar bears are smart. They're opportunistic, especially when food's involved. Once a bear gets a food reward, it will come back, almost without exception. So if we have a bear that is becoming habituated or food conditioned, that's when we will make the decision to put a trap out or go hands on with that bear and decide the best option to keep people safe and keep the bear safe is by holding it in our facility either until first ice or for thirty days. They stay with us for thirty days, and then we'll use a helicopter to relocate them further up the coast. On one hand, it's really sad that we have to relocate these bears. That in order to live with them, we have to dart them and fly them away in a helicopter. They must be scared or at the very least confused. But anywhere else in the world, that bear is probably gonna be killed. Whether it's a black bear or a grizzly bear or a polar bear, any bear that is labeled a problem bear is likely going to be eliminated. And that's why I actually find this really inspiring to see the amount of time, energy, ingenuity, money that people put in to save the life of one bear gives me hope. I want people to know that these bears are worth saving. You know, just think of the the opportunities that having these bears here has provided to Churchill. We've been through some some rough times in the last decade with rail lines getting washed out and just all the COVID different challenges. But the thing that has always been here for us are the bears. Tourism's critical to to Churchill's operation. Without tourism, I I don't know what would happen to this town. It's, you know, the main stimulation of our economy. We are in a spot right now where there's a lot of potential for us to really make the most of this tourism economy that we've got. We have a lot of opportunity at our fingertips to continue on a very good path for a really long time. You know, so long as the bears are still here and the whales are still here and the northern lights are still in the sky. You come to Churchill for those big ticket items, and you're so thrilled when you see them. But then you meet the people, and and you're sold. You're completely sold. I still think, per capita, Churchill has more nice people than anywhere I've ever been. The people in this community are amazing. I always say it's because we're freezing cold and we are all trying to bundle up together to stay warm. I love the people here. It is this wonderful, unique place unlike anywhere else I have ever been. I love my home more than anything. You know? I I love I I love living here. I love being here. I love sharing it. It's just a place that like very slowly grabbed my heart and hasn't let go. There's a tie to the land. There's an intangible magic. It's a sense of place. And I don't feel that anywhere else. I feel that I'm connected to a region. I feel I'm connected to different parts of the land where my ancestors were. And going back to land, that is healing. That is empowering. The level of respect that people have here towards the wildlife is incredibly important. We planted ourselves in the middle of a polar bear migratory path. We did this. We're here. And so who are we to sit there and be like, how dare this polar bear run through my backyard? This is their land, and we're on it. We need to be smart and respectful, and we need to take care of them the best we can.