Nov 13 2008

Our First Day With the Polar Bears

Published by at 9:19 pm under Canada,Churchill

On our first day out on the tundra, we were pretty lucky and saw a lot of activity. We left on the buggy about 8am and returned about 4pm which correlates pretty well with sunrise and sunset here. During that time, we saw many polar bears – probably a dozen or so. Two of them came up to the tundra buggy and checked us out, two young males sparred a bit, and there were a few mothers with cubs. The weather varied a bit between bright overcast skies to blustery, snowy , and dark gray but overall, it was cold but it wasn’t too cold. Here are a few pictures.

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Above, a curious bear approaches from a distance to check us out

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Above, looking down on the bear from the back of the buggy which has a small open deck

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Above, looking to the side at the bear who stood up to get a closer look at us

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Above, the bear got bored with us and went to check out the buggy behind us

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Above, a cub leans on his mother as they approach the buggies’ path

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Above, another mother and cub in the foreground with two buggies in the background

– Dave

One response so far

One Response to “Our First Day With the Polar Bears”

  1. Mom and Dad says:

    Dave;

    When Nan and I were young we took our first trip West and were visitig at Yellowstone. The trip was against Dr.s suggestion as Nan was pregnant with Chris at the time. At our first bear siting (big brown) Nan handed me the camera and said “Russ go get a picture”. I guess she didn’t get out of the car due to maternal instincts.

    Collapsible Kodak camera and a Miranda SLR were some early 35 mm’s I used.

    We laugh at bear buggy!

    Great pics though.

    Russ