DOES CANADIAN WILDLIFE VIEWING GET ANY BETTER THAN IN CHURCHILL CANADA?

It’s like watching your favourite nature channel…without the television. Churchill Wild’s Birds, Bears, and Belugas adventure puts guests amidst two of the Arctic’s most famous seasonal residents: thousands of sociable beluga whales and the largest land carnivore on earth- the polar bear.

With a warmer climate to contend with, both the belugas and the bears seem to faring well and much the same as they have done in the past, albeit with one distinct difference. The last few summers, Churchill Wild and its guests have been privy to an interesting twist on the predatory patterns of the polar bear. Everyone with an interest in polar bears knows that their diet is based almost solely on seal and that those bears who call the Hudson Bay home, have effectively created one of the most prominent tourism seasons in all of Canada. During October and November the population of Churchill triples with an influx of travelers eager to observe the bears anxiously mill about the shores in wait for the ice to come in and allow them access to those plentiful ringed seals in the north.

While residents in Churchill generally feel as though the Belugas are among the best mothers in the animal kingdom. Mother will nurse her calf bears are coming off that ice they wait so anxiously for in religiously every half hour after birth for the first good shape, they have taken to snacking in the summer year of life. months as well, which previously would have been spent fasting. Admittedly, “snacking” might be a slight understatement. In reality, they are actively hunting some of the 3,000 pound beluga whales that summer in the bay annually.

“We’ve seen them employ all sorts of strategies,” says Photo Credit Dennis Fast. Mike Reimer, owner of the Seal River Heritage Lodge that acts as home base for the adventure “and they consistently impress all with their persistence! We have witnessed their attempts to strike from above the surface and we’ve seen them dive. It is usually large males that dominate the choice rocks in the areas of the bay with the clearest water and we’ll pass right by them in our zodiacs without a moment’s notice on their part.”

1 This statement comes from www.bearbiology.com/pbdesc.html, accessed January 30, 2006.
2 This figure is conservative. Males can actually weigh in at 3,300 pounds with females representing the aforementioned 3,000 pounds. These numerical values are credited to the American Cetacean Society’s Beluga Whale Factsheet, located at www.acsonline.org/factpack/BelugaWhale.htm, accessed January 30, 2006.
3 There are said to be 57,000 beluga whales in the Hudson Bay come summer. See Turenne, P. (2005, May 3). ‘Toba world’s beluga capital. Winnipeg Sun, p. D4.
Churchill Wild, the local and family-run eco-conscious outfitter of which Seal River Heritage Lodge is a part, provides guests with the opportunity to witness this emerging beluga and bear dynamic each summer.

“It has been one of our best selling adventures,” Reimer continues “I think it appeals to those who consider themselves travelers as opposed to tourists as there is no part of this adventure that even remotely resembles a game-park or a zoo. It is the guests who truly engage in this experience- the ones who snorkel with the whales, take long hikes onto the summer tundra in search of its many wildlife residents, and those who take a moment just to look, smell and listen- that benefit from it the most and whom we welcome back year after year after year.”

IF YOU GO:
The “Birds, Bears, and Belugas” tour from Churchill Wild is available from mid July to mid August, offering a 7-day, 6-night experience for $4350.00 CDN. Call 1-866-UGO-WILD (846-9453) or visit www.churchillwild.com for more information.

The “Birds, Bears, and Belugas” tour package also includes polar bear watching, swimming with the belugas (in dry suits of course), fishing, kayaking, bird watching, photography workshops, and experiencing the dance of gods–the Northern Lights (particularly in the August dates as the days are starting to get shorter by then).

For Manitoba travel information visit: www.travelmanitoba.com

Lodge Information:
Seal River Heritage Lodge sleeps a maximum of 14 guests, as based on double occupancy.
The Lodge is designed in an Old-World fur-trade era style and is luxurious by Arctic standards. Speaking of luxury, recipes prepared at the lodge are of a gourmet andauthentically northern variety with the use of wild meat, berries, and local fish varieties. Gourmet vegetarian cuisineis also available and is as delectable as the meat dishes served.

Watch wildlife in the day or northern lights by night either from a prime outdoor location or from the viewing tower recently built atop the lodge. With sweeping views of the Seal River Heritage Lodge is located 50 seemingly endless fields of wildflowers and the enormity of kilometres (30 miles) by air from the the Hudson Bay and of the aurora-filled skies at night, the Town of Churchill. Churchill Wild will viewing tower is a popular spot regardless of the time of fly you to the lodge in a fixed-wing aircraft affording priceless aerial views a day. of the tundra ecosystem you will call home for the 7 days and 6 nights of the Birds, Bears, and Belugas adventure.

January 31, 2006   Posted in: Canada