Travelin' Fullers Blog: It's All About The Polar Bears in Churchill!

This is going to be a quick "catch up" blog this evening. The internet is a little "wonky" and I've had to retype everything twice already☹️️. It's also because the last three days have been VERY early starts. (5:00 am) and we have a 6:00 am call for tomorrow. We left the chilly (but warm for them at this time of year ) Winnipeg and the beautiful old Fort Herry Hotel. We boarded our charter plane for the 2 1/2 hour flight to Churchill, Manitoba Canada where today was a balmy 31' F with 40 mph winds! 😱 Yikes! The plane landed smoothly and we traveled into the town of around 700 permanent residents to have lunch at the "famous" Gypsy's. It has wonderful food and amazing pastries and desserts. It will close in two weeks for the winter and won't reopen until next March. The residents are there every day for lunch and they're buying up all the freshly baked bread and pastries to freeze!

Churchill is an old town which grew to be a permanent place because of the Hudson Bay Company and the fur trade. The polar bears congregate in this area every year waiting for the Bay to freeze over so they can venture out on the "sea ice" to hunt for seals! They will not be back until next March when they will come ashore for mating season. While the females are impregnated in March and April, the mothers won't make a den until September. The bears basically eat very little over the summer months, living off the fat they've accumulated during the winter hunting season. A polar bear must eat a seal at least every 5 or 6 days in the winter hunting season in order to survive. The moms and cubs will emerge from their dens in October and begin the wait for the Bay to freeze over. When that happens , all the bears will leave this area. I will have lots of facts for you tomorrow night after our first full day on the Tundra Rover we go out on. The rovers are heated and have a bathroom! Yea! Their is a platform on the back of the sixteen passenger vehicle which you can step out on when the rover is stopped. Tonight we left at sunset and went to hear a lecture at the science/research center. While there, we saw our first bear being chased by the "bear patrol jeep!" It was too close to the research center and people. It's strange to see one running full out (and this one was). Polar bears must stay cool at all times! Running heats up their bodies and can be dangerous! Think of a human running a marathon in a parka and snow boots. Pretty tiring and difficult. It's the same for the bear.

As we left the research center in our rover, Grant spotted an Arctic Hare- the first one our guide, Fred, had seen this season! Good job Grant!

Tomorrow night I'll tell you more about bears, the environment and Polar Bear Jail here which currently has 12 inhabitants- one joining the jail today while we were at lunch! So, that's the "teaser" line to get you to come back and read the second blog!