Polar Bears & Wolves – 4 days in Canada’s Subarctic

The daily routine was simple – we’d load up in the wagons (pulled by atv’s) and drive until we found something interesting.  The guiding team would then assess the situation, and, if possible, we would approach on foot.

It was the end of October and unseasonably warm.  The tundra hadn’t froze yet, so it was very soft and muddy and one of the atv’s did end up getting stuck!

And then, there it was – our first polar bear!  We didn’t walk with this one, it was almost lunchtime and it was far away, but that didn’t matter!  There wasn’t much colour in the landscape or the sky, so I converted this one to black and white…

Polar bears can walk 30km or more in a day.  While they appear to have a slow, methodical gait, they can actually cover a fair amount of territory.  After lunch, we were able to get ahead of this polar bear and walk back towards it.

The bears stay on the ice until it melts, usually in the late summer, and head back out when it forms again in the late fall.  During this time it is difficult for them to hunt for their meal of choice (seal meat and fat) so they rely on their fat reserves to get them through and scavenge for whatever bits and berries they can find.

The next morning as we were preparing to head out, a pack of wolves were on the airstrip and around the lodge.

Our plan of going out was scrapped so we could spend some time with these beautiful animals.  What happened next was nothing short of amazing.  From the safety of the lodge’s watch tower we witnessed an encounter between some of the wolves and a polar bear!

More of the pack arrived but ultimately they realized that despite their numbers, the odds weren’t stacked in their favour and they slowly drifted away.

After lunch we ventured out to the runway where we were able to photograph the wolves (from a safe distance)…

Eventually a bear was spotted heading east.  He was on the beach, walking and sleeping.  While he was sleeping we made our approach on foot, in a single line from the bear to our guide.  This minimizes the profile that the bear sees (he sees only 1 person instead of 15) and makes us less threatening to him.

We stayed with him for a while, observing him and photographing him.  Before long, he settled in and we left him so he could sleep without any worries…

Day 3 provided us with more of the same , in the morning we saw the wolves again and a bear from a distance.  After lunch, our luck got much better.  The sun came out and we tracked another bear.

The bear walked along the coast, keeping an eye us as he went…

It came towards us, wanting to check us out.

He decided we were no threat and posed for us…

Later that night, mother nature decided it was time to put on a bit of a show for us…

The next morning the wolves were still around.  We went out to photograph them in the early morning light…

In the distance we saw a very large male polar bear crossing the river…

He was also very shy, and he disappeared into the willows so we went in for lunch.

As we were eating, he emerged from the bushes and walked right past the lodge.  Not wanting to disturb him, we photographed through the dining room windows.

The next morning we flew back to Churchill and then to Winnipeg, bringing another great adventure to a close!