Churchill Polar Bear Report – Wildlife Abounds

November 2 – Mild temperatures dominated the day, hovering just below freezing. The skies were mostly cloudy, and short snow showers occurred periodically. The biggest news from the tundra was several sets of sows with cubs, each of which was fairly active. One mother with young was “bullied” by an adult male for a short period, while another pair approached some of the vehicles. Some groups spent the entire day with cubs, while others chose to explore more of the tundra. For the polar bear watchers that were on the move, more adult and sub-adult bears were encountered, including two sparring males. One polar bear was spotted swimming in Hudson Bay. Travelers have also come upon red foxes and a cross fox, which has dark patterned spotting due to partial melanism. In the wider Churchill region, caribou, wolves and wolverine have been encountered over the past three days—this year has had an uncommon number of atypical sightings. Very few people have come across these animals, but they are being seen. The town itself has seen a spike in polar bear activity for several days (half a dozen being witnessed in the past 24 hours), keeping bear patrol officers busy.

Polar bear near Hudson Bay in Churchill, Manitoba

A polar bear roams the coast of the Hudson Bay in Churchill. Katie de Meulles photo.

November 1 – It was a partly sunny day on the shores of Hudson Bay, with temperatures just below freezing. The ponds have now all frozen. For a handful of travelers out early, there was an incredibly unique sighting of two wolves moving across the tundra, one black, the other gray. The sighting was fleeting—no one managed to capture a picture. Guides with 15 years of experience in Churchill have never encountered wolves in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area during bear season, though they are occasionally seen from helicopter flights over the adjoining Wapusk National Park. As the day unfolded, many polar bears were seen throughout the entirety of the management area. They were mostly active, occupied with sorting themselves as larger males wandered from place to place. In the afternoon, polar bear watchers observed a sow and cub—they alternately rested in the willows and ambled about. A gyrfalcon was spotted along with many ptarmigan and a red fox. An uncommon sighting of a pine marten by one group rounded off a notable day on the tundra.

boreal forest in churchill

A magnificent timeless vista of the boreal forest with creek outlet in the foreground. Katie de Meulles photo.

polar bear in Churchill

A polar bear explores the tundra for a meal in Churchill. Katie de Meulles photo.

Churchill Photo of the Week

Dorota Walkoski of Great White Bear Tours captured this harbinger of spring image in Churchill. Caribou, snow geese and Canada geese fill the landscape and feed on the bounty which the north provides this time of year! Bountiful Churchill summer will be upon us soon and avid explorers will flock to town for birding excursions, beluga whale charters and tundra exploring in search of fox, polar bears, Arctic hare and even wolves. This summer on the Hudson Bay is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in recent years. Stay posted for all the news and photos from the north!

Churchill Gray Wolf Photo

This cool Gray wolf shot from Rhonda Reid in Churchill is an amazing gem and rare sighting! Wolves in the area tend to stay out of sight if at all possible though off-season, when less travelers are in the area, there are better chances of spotting one. Churchill Arctic summer is still a time for seeing these majestic creatures when the town moves at a little slower pace.

wolf in Churchill, Manitoba

Gray wolf loping through a flock of Canada Geese in Churchill. Rhonda Reid photo.

Are Wolves Preying on Polar Bears in Manitoba?

polar bear sow and cub Churchill, Manitoba

Polar bear sow and cub wearily survey their surroundings constantly aware of predators. Justin Gibson photo.

A Manitoba Conservation official has found evidence that wolves near Hudson Bay have learned to hunt polar bear cubs.

Polar bears are generally considered the top of the Arctic food chain, but recently a pack of wolves apparently distracted a mother bear long enough to take her cub in the Kaskatamagan Wildlife Management Area in northeastern Manitoba, said Daryll Hedman, the wildlife manager for the province’s northeast region.

“This is the first strong indirect evidence I’ve ever seen of wolves preying on a polar bear cub. They probably killed the cub and dragged it away.” reported Hedman.

For four years now Hedman has been conducting polar bear maternity den emergence surveys in the region by helicopter. These wolf and polar bear encounters have been somewhat lore and something he has not witnessed firsthand. This past March Hedman saw evidence of such an attack for the first time. Now the unreal became real. “This doesn’t happen often. It still seems to be a very rare event.” stated Hedman.

Arctic wolves Canada

Arctic wolfpack searching for a meal on the ice. Carnivoraforum.com photo.

“We’ve had reports of wolves predating on polar bears [the cubs] in the past by lodges and First Nations, mostly when the polar bears are coming off the ice onto land at the end of July,” said Hedman.

“In our most recent report, a First Nations trapper reported to me what looked like a polar bear-wolf encounter” in the wildlife management area east of York Factory on the Hayes River, which runs along the Hudson Bay shoreline to the Ontario border.

“He said a single adult polar bear track was leaving the den site. About five days later, we were doing our survey by helicopter. We landed [at that site] and there was definitely evidence of polar bear and wolf tracks.”

Gray wolf pack

Wolf pack working together. Digital Vision photo.

Members of a wolf pack get a mother’s attention, then the rest of the pack grabs her cub, Daryll Hedman says. (Cameron MacIntosh/CBC)

This most recent attack that Hedman saw evidence of was pretty conclusive and pointed towards a sure attack of a polar bear by wolves.

“There was also a single cub track leading up to the wolf encounter, and after that, only the single track of a female polar bear going out to the ice of western Hudson Bay,” stated Hedman. “The polar bear cub was probably four or five months old”. he added.

“It happened right on the tidal flats of Hudson Bay,” he said, noting the area contains a pretty healthy population of moose, the main prey species for wolves along the Hudson Bay coast in Kaskatamagan.

“I’ve had reports from people who have actually seen this sort of thing before,” he said.

“What usually happens is the sow polar bear can’t react quickly enough when the wolves are in a pack. Some of the wolves are getting her attention and the others go for the cub.”

Scientists and researchers studying these animals have also documented wolves hunting polar bear cubs.

“In 1983, the late Malcolm Ramsay and I found evidence of a pack of wolves in the Churchill denning area that had learned to kill polar bear cubs when they were on their way to the sea ice from their maternity dens,” polar bear specialist Ian Stirling wrote in his book Polar Bears: The Natural History of a Threatened Species.

“Where the polar bears den, there are no wolves, but once they leave the dens and get closer to the coast, they might encounter wolves.”

(Excerpts and quotes supplied by Martin Zelig for CBC News)

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