Bear sightings are becoming more frequent in a relatively tiny Canadian community that is located just south of the Arctic Circle. In order to discover the answer, a travel writer embarks on a tundra expedition.

It is one thing to observe a polar bear that weighs 1,200 pounds from a distance across the cold tundra. To get close enough to view the snowflakes on its nose is an entirely different challenge. Both kinds of meetings are a normal aspect of life in Churchill, which is located in Manitoba.
One of the few areas in the world with a human population that regularly interacts with polar bears is the town of Churchill, which is located on the western side of the Hudson Bay in Canada (the town has 1,050 year-round human inhabitants, and roughly 1,200 ursine visitors that arrive during peak season in the late summer). It is the "polar bear capital of the world," according to the signs that are all over the place. Bears who wander into town are occasionally securely directed to “polar bear jail” — a disused military aircraft hangar where they receive medical attention — and are then tagged and moved far from town.

Injuries caused by bears are extremely uncommon, but they do occur on occasion. But since the 1980s, there hasn't been a deadly assault thanks in part to efforts made by neighbourhood watch groups and a new radar system known as "bear-dar," which alerts residents if an animal is coming closer to their location. (In addition, residents often do not lock the doors to their vehicles, just in case someone needs to take refuge in a hurry.)

Bears, who use sea ice as both a means of transit and a platform for hunting seals, begin to seek refuge on land as early as August when the ice begins to recede. Bears utilise sea ice as both a means of transportation and a platform for hunting seals. As the ice returns in October, they will ultimately come back and cluster there while they wait for their frozen rides out of town. Because of this, approximately 10,000 tourists make their way to Churchill every autumn, typically taking a flight of approximately two hours from Winnipeg to get there because there are no roads leading into town. This is done in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the largest land predator in the world.

November is traditionally just around the time when the watching season is winding down, and that's when I arrived in Churchill. It was explained to me that there was a possibility that I would not come across any bears. Despite this, my adrenaline was pumping like crazy as I shuffled out of the Aurora Inn, where I'd spent the night. I was dressed appropriately for the frigid weather. I made sure to check both my left and right sides before making my way across the street to meet the other people who were watching the bear. We were all participating in a trip that lasted for five days and was planned by Frontiers North Adventures, an outfitter that is owned by a family and has been leading excursions around Churchill since 1987. Visitors can sign up to see beluga whales or the northern lights, depending on the time of year, in addition to the bears, which are the primary draw for the park.

We took a trip outside of town to see the Tundra Buggy owned by Frontier North. It is a specialty vehicle with 40 seats and a height of 13 feet from the wheels to the ceiling. As our company traversed the landscape, we kept our eyes peeled out the windows, doing our best to determine whether the enormous white lumps we saw in the distance were piles of snow or fur, and searching for the distinctive black noses of bears lazing in willow shrubs. The buggy came to a stop as soon as the bears were noticed. Visitors were allowed to stroll out to the back deck, which is suspended about five feet from the ground and has a grated surface encircled on three sides by protective metal walls. Because the bears aren't skittish, we didn't have to wait very long. (In point of fact, during the course of those five days, we came across perhaps forty of the critters.) They put on a show by wrestling each other on the ice, striking yoga poses in the snow, or simply standing alongside the black spruce trees that, in these parts, are barren on one side from the Arctic winds. They did this by popping up on their hind legs and resting their front paws on the back of the buggy for a closer look. Even while it was a fantastic event, it was marred by the fact that bears were around when they weren't supposed to be. The season had come to an end, but they were in a bind with nowhere to go.

Polar bears in the "Polar Bear Capitol of the World." #Churchill #Manitoba pic.twitter.com/6iR2CuqDZd

— Third Age Expeditions ✈ (@ThirdAgeExped) May 13, 2016

I had the opportunity to talk with Geoff York, the senior director of conservation at Polar Bears International, or PBI for short. PBI is a nonprofit organisation that works in collaboration with Frontiers North. He was travelling in one of the PBI's specially designed, more compact buggies for use in scientific research. He showed the contrast between the two by bringing up two different maps on his laptop, one from the year 2015 and the other from the year 2021. In November of 2015, the region was entirely covered with ice. In the fall before last, there was not even a trace of snow, let alone ice. Because there is no sea ice for the bears to travel on, they are stranded on land and are cut off from their source of food. This presents a problem.

Dr. Thea Bechshoft, a marine mammal biologist and staff scientist with the Arctic Bears International, was seated in the front passenger seat of the research buggy as she explained that polar bears are powerful swimmers, but they are not particularly fast. Polar bears don't have a chance of catching seals if they're swimming in open ocean by themselves. They require the platform that the sea ice provides."

While the bears are on land, they burn more calories than they do in the water, therefore this results in them losing weight. On average, the bears now spend one day more on land than they did the previous year. Because of this, the world's largest land carnivores are in danger, particularly the females, who need to weigh more than 210 kilogrammes (420 pounds) in order to have children. "On average, females are bearing fewer cubs, and those pups are also growing up to be smaller." Since the 1980s, Bechshoft estimates that around one-third of the bear population in Western Hudson Bay has died off. According to Bechshoft, if a bear goes more than 107 days without a substantial meal, they are dangerously near to dying of famine. The bears that walked around outside our buggy had not eaten in more than 140 days.

People from all over the world are given the opportunity to view what is going on with the bears thanks to the work of more than a dozen researchers, scientists, and volunteers who share their findings, give presentations, and run live cameras at the PBI. Bechshoft and York are two of these individuals. PBI House is an education centre located in Churchill that was partially funded by the organization's most significant corporate supporter, Canada Goose. Visitors can learn about the bears and their environment by viewing displays, movies, maps, and models at PBI House.

After witnessing a polar bear in its natural habitat, it is difficult to conceive of a world without these magnificent animals. The creatures serve as an early warning system for other consequences that will likely result from climate change. In order to save them, as well as ourselves, we will need to conserve and safeguard the sea ice, which has a significant impact on the way the climate behaves all around the world. Bechshoft added that they refer to the vast sheet as "the earth's air conditioner" because of its ability to help reflect sunlight and maintain lower temperatures all around the world.

When I wasn't out in the buggy in the afternoons, I would explore Churchill. I took pictures of the dozens of murals that can be found around town that have been painted by 18 different artists from around the world. I also went to the Itsanitaq Museum, which has a collection of Inuit carvings and artefacts, some of which date back to 1700 B.C. During our evening meals at the Tundra Pub, our group got together with the locals to trade stories, the majority of which were about the bears. For example, we asked the locals about their experiences walking back home in the dark and shared our memories of being in awe when we saw a mother and her cub.

In the end, I did not see anything while I was walking around outside but rather while I was sitting in the buggy. And once a bear was spotted, there was complete silence for the rest of the trip. The windows were rolled down as silently as possible, and the cameras were prepared. After that, we sat there and waited, watching, looking at each other, and smiling.