Churchill is widely known as the premier location to see the King of the Arctic, aka polar bear! Natural Habitat guide Justin Gibson has spent many seasons in Churchill guiding avid travelers on the tundra to get a glimpse of these magnificent creatures. This Churchill webinar goes over all the crucial info needed to see the threatened polar bear species on the shores of the Hudson Bay. Enjoy.
A very rare sight to see an airlift this time of year of a mother and cub polar bear out to the ice pack. The immense amount of snow has even made travel for polar bears difficult. Mothers and cubs can emerge from their dens in March though most families are spotted further east around Wapusk National Park. This polar bear family ended up somewhat stranded in Wapusk Adventures sled – dog yard instead. Quite the happenings in Churchill this time of year!
This video footage from Tony Kwong in Yellowknife of the magical aurora borealis was posted by CBC NWt. We’ve seen some unbelievable northern lights this season in between the fierce storms! Enjoy.
Rhonda Miller was driving to work in Edzo, N.W.T last Friday when she thought maybe she was still asleep and dreaming. Maybe, she thought, she needed another cup of coffee to explain what she was seeing up on the road ahead. She surely never expected what she eventually saw.
Miller thought there was a man walking along the road. “I thought that was strange because you don’t normally see people walking on the road that far out,” Miller stated.
“I slowed down a bit and I got closer. I thought it was a bear, and I thought, it can’t be a bear because it was the wrong time of year.” She suddenly spotted another animal and realized she was racing along the road with two black wolves.
Rhonda Miller near home in N.W.T. CBC/N.W.T. photo.
Numerous men from Miller’s community have been wondering how fast the wolves were running. Miller estimates they were traveling between 40 and 50 km/hr.
‘So many men have asked, how fast were they going? Had I been a man I may have looked. I don’t know. I think between 40 and 50 [km/h]… it was fast,’ says Rhonda Miller. (submitted by Rhonda Miller)
“I was so struck by the size of their heads and their jaws.”
Miller recorded the wolves thinking the whole time that this was the only way anyone would believe what she witnessed. She described their frantic gait as “flat out”.
“When I got to school, I shared it with the teachers and kids,” Miller said. “Everybody was just amazed. I think just the power of them and the beauty of them, seeing them running like that, flat out, is pretty inspiring.”
This time-lapse view from inside the Aurora Pod in Churchill was filmed by Natural Habitat guide Justin Gibson…pre – blizzard of course. Once the snow and wind stops we hope to see more amazing footage and photos from the site of the pod out on the Hudson Bay coast. With one of the most emphatic blizzards ever to hit Churchill still happening, the magical aurora borealis have obviously been obscured for the past few nights. This unique viewing and warming structure allows photographers to be on – site in an area that is remote and situated perfectly for prime northern lights activity. Stay tuned for when the snow stops and the lights come out again!
Last week we posted news about the Doomsday Vault in Svalbard. The facility took in 50,000 new seeds for safe storage in the event of a catastrophe on Earth. Here is a fascinating video tour of the vault in the Arctic and how it all works! Enjoy!
