Some video footage shot by Natural Habitat Adventures guide Rinie van Meurs. Polar bears can dive for extended time under water though this video shows what appears to be a record dive by this particular animal. Enjoy this raw footage!
This fascinating view from space of the shimmering northern lights is unique though still nothing like seeing them in the open, cool air of the north country and Churchill, Manitoba! January through March is the peak time to see the spectacular northern lights right above you in Churchill. Head north next year and enjoy a once in a lifetime experience from the tundra!
Awesome video footage of a voracious polar bear attempting to snag a beluga whale in a open lead in the ice of the Arctic. Exciting footage and evidence that polar bears will go after any creature to provide the sustenance for their high metabolism. Adaptation will be the key for these hearty animals as the Arctic ice dwindles even more due to global warming. Polar bears depend on the ice platform to hunt seals through the winter and with less ice time they must turn to protein – rich alternatives.
This short edited time lapse of cascading northern lights over the S/V Ithaca in Churchill is a unique view in to the northern frontier world. It’s cool to imagine what some of the early explorers experienced on those cold, dark nights in the Hudson Bay. The sights and sounds of the aurora borealis in any remote Arctic region give thrills and chills to even the most seasoned traveler! Churchill’s Arctic summer is quickly approaching and it will be interesting to see if northern lights prevail at the start and then toward the end of summer.
Enjoy this journey through the Arctic with wildlife photographer Vincent Munier. This Short Film Showcase highlights some incredible videos created and focused on bountiful Arctic wildlife by filmmakers selected by National Geographic editors.Enjoy!
National Geographic wildlife photographer Nansen Weber has been going to Cunningham Inlet by Canada’s Somerset Island in the high Arctic with his cameras for 16 years. Every summer thousands of beluga whales join him for an amazing spectacle in the shallow inlet. For about a month, the beluga whales gather for what is a very social time as well as molting period and nursery time for newborns. The Cunningham River is a northerly version of the Churchill and surrounding estuaries in the southern Hudson Bay in that its’ temperatures average eight degrees F warmer than the surrounding ocean waters. The warmer water is a welcome respite for the whales and facilitates the behavior mentioned.
Weber and the whales seem to coexist in the inlet with the belugas approaching him closely as if they remember him from the year before. The drone footage of the whales, polar bears, and the incredible rugged landscape lends perspective to the massive wild region that is largely unspoiled.
That notion could be changing however with climate change and federal policy allowing research and transport throughout the Arctic. Shipping channels around the Northwest Passage are becoming more accessible with ice reduction due to warming temperatures. This will allow large ships in the region and they, with all the noise they produce, will undoubtedly have an affect on the animals echolocation faculties.
“This might be the only place on Earth you can enjoy the beluga whales like this that is still wild like it’s been for the last 500 years, but maybe it’s going to be changing. Just in my lifetime of being in the Arctic for 20 years, I’ve seen climate change. There’s new birds that are migrating up north that I haven’t seen before, there’s mosquitoes now where there shouldn’t be mosquitoes, the ice patterns and weather patterns are all weird. It’s kind of a dilemma that’s always there in the back of your head while you’re enjoying the beluga whale spectacle in front of you,” Weber says.
Weber’s videos and photos shed light on how ship traffic and resulting noise pollution may alter the beluga whale population’s migratory routes. “There has been scientific evidence that the ship traffic—the sonar—affects the communication between the belugas, so that could definitely be a problem for the future for our belugas in Cunningham Inlet.”
All of the Arctic region and all of its inhabitants will be affected with changing climate. “It’s not only about the beluga whales. I mean, we have polar bears, there’s narwhals and bowheads along the Northwest Passage, arctic char that run in the rivers. Inland you have the musk ox, the caribou that graze, all the migratory birds that fly up every summer to enjoy the short arctic summer, the snowy owls, the falcons. It’s just a huge ecosystem that’s all tied together,” states Weber.
