How do you get from Deer Isle, Maine, to the Polar Bear Capital of the world?

In October, my husband, Ken, and I flew from Portland to Chicago and on to Winnipeg in the Canadian province of Manitoba where we hooked up with a group numbering 16, including guides from Natural Habitat. After a day of sightseeing in this city, which boasts the world-famous Oak Hammock Marsh and the Manitoba Natural History Museum, we boarded a chartered flight to Churchill, a grain port 700 miles farther north on the southwestern coast of Hudson Bay.

The “Bay” is really a sea measuring 1,200 miles by 750 miles. Nature lovers come to Churchill for a number of reasons. In the spring, they venture there to see hundreds of species of migrating birds, in the summer for the great number of beluga whales and in the fall for the polar bears. In fact, Churchill is the polar bear capital of the world because more of these alpha predators assemble there than anywhere else on Earth. There are more bears (about 1,200) than people ( 800). Bears are not social, so why so many at that particular location? They are waiting for the bay to freeze so they can go out on the ice to hunt ringed seals, their preferred prey. Most of the bears have not eaten since the spring thaw; existing on kelp and berries, they are lean and hungry.

The waters of Hudson Bay move counterclockwise with several rivers running into it from the west. This mixture of fresh and saltwater dilutes the salinity of the water near the shore, causing the Churchill area to freeze first. The bears know this.

We were delivered to our modest motel, which was on the main street of this frontier-like town, the equivalent of about six city blocks. Our biggest surprise was the temperature. We had packed our heaviest sweaters and parkas, stuffed mittens and long underwear into every corner of our duffles only to find the weather just pleasantly chilly. We were in the sub-arctic, for heaven’s sake, what was going on? Climate change, global warming, call it what you want. With temperatures in the mid-30s for our five days, it didn’t feel like polar bear country.

Our first night in Churchill, we were briefed on the wildlife we would see and the precautions necessary when in proximity to the world’s largest land carnivore: polar bears weigh from 850 to 1,000 pounds. Although they usually will not attack humans except to protect their cubs or because they are starving, polar bears are among the four or five species that do occasionally kill and eat people.

Ursus maritimus

Known to scientists as Ursus maritimus (“bear of the sea”), these intelligent animals are equally comfortable on land and in the water and have been known to swim more than 60 miles without resting. Their long necks are very effective at plunging into seal holes, and their 1-foot-wide paws serve as excellent snowshoes. They can smell a seal 20 miles away.

Superbly adapted for life in severe sub-zero weather, the bears have a 4-inch layer of fat that not only protects them from the cold, but makes them more bouyant in water. In the wild, polar bears can live to 25 years. Mating takes place on the sea ice in April and May. Fertilization of the egg is delayed until fall and Hudson Bay area cubs are born in January. Females have a litter every three years, which explains why depleted populations take so long to recover. Twins are still fairly common but triplets, once frequent, are now very rare. Cubs usually stay with their mothers for about 21/2 years. Currently, polar bears top 25,000 worldwide with more than 15,000 in Canada.

Bear-watching

Our first night in Churchill, we went outside hoping to see the aurora borealis. We were not prepared for what awaited us. The display that night was one of the largest solar flares ever seen and at that far northern latitude (58th parallel), the result was spectacular. An emerald funnel spanned the entire horizon with the edges changing from pink to blue. We have seen northern lights in Minnesota but never anything to compare with those that night.

The next morning, a clear, windless day, the bus left from The Polar Bear motel at 8:30 a.m. It is usually windy in Churchill because the tundra and taiga is totally flat with mostly hardy dwarf willow and alder plus granite boulders that give it the look of a moonscape. It is also arid, receiving only about 6 inches of rainfall each year.

We drove to the launch site of the tundra buggies. These seemingly indestructible vehicles can go anywhere. Riding almost 15 feet off the ground on eight agricultural tires, they can seat about 30 and have windows with the bottom sill high enough to prevent a curious bear from getting its claws inside (male bears can stand 9 feet). There was also an open deck at the rear where you could go out to get a better look.

We climbed aboard with hopes that we would soon see a bear. We had a bit of a drive ahead, however, which provided time for our knowledgeable guide, Doris Hausleitner, who has a master’s degree in wildlife, to give us a quick education on what we were going to see. After about 45 minutes of a rough, rocky, bone-breaking ride, through shallow “lakes,” craters and mud, the driver stopped. We had been told to be silent when a bear is sighted, not even a whisper. And there he was! A powerful young male about 50 feet from our buggy.

We held our breath as he turned and slowly and elegantly (which is how polar bears move) came through a patch of dwarf willows and approached us. Right at the wheels, he stopped and looked us over. Then he yawned, displaying a black tongue, and proceeded to cross in front of the buggy. We were told that yawning indicates stress.

The only sound was 16 cameras clicking like mad. As the day continued, we saw about 32 more bears, including several “mums” with twins and single cubs of varying ages. I’ve been told that it is quite unusual to see as many mothers and cubs as we did during the three days.

Other things white awaited us. White snowy owls, several white arctic foxes, and flocks of white willow ptarmigans that created a Chinese painting as they flew off with black-bordered, brillant white wings. Churchill is a mecca for birders. More than 200 species have been observed during migration, 11 staying through the bitter winter.

One of the foxes did the typical mouse leap (on the scent of a lemming maybe) and we saw two silver foxes (the black phase of the red fox).

The bear behavior was fascinating: Juvenile males sparring on their hind legs, lone bears feeding on kelp, several bears approaching our buggy to standing up and looking in our buggy, a mum peeking out from a grove of willows watching two approaching males (with her cub well hidden). Another solitary bear coming under the floor grill of the back porch and “nosed” us. The guides recalled a woman who kneeled down and kissed the bear on its nose! Another woman on another trip threw out some food from the buggy. A definite no-no. She was returned to Churchill and the police put her on the next plane back to Winnipeg at her own expense. You don’t break the law on the tundra.

Speaking of policing, it’s interesting to learn what is done with rogue bears, ones that wander into town or visit the town dump too often. Not too long ago, they were simply shot and that was the end of it. But it became apparent that this was a terrible waste of a commercially valuable animal.

So now the offending bears are captured in large open-ended barrels with seal oil as bait and then driven to the “polar bear jail,” a large Quonset-like building outside of town. The compound can hold 23 bears in separate cells, cubs are kept with their mums. It is supposed to be a negative experience for the bears so it is kept dark inside and they are not fed. Ice is provided for water.

Since it is stressful for bears to be so close to each other, the bears are moved out after three or four days. A helicopter will take them one by one (1,000 pounds at time) to a location about 30 miles away on their natural migratory route, making sure that they are put down far away from any other bear. It costs about $8,000 a trip so this sometimes delays their liberation. The procedure is to drug the bear, attach an ear tag to identify repeat offenders and then put it in a strong net. We asked about the drug used and whether it harms the bears. After a lot of experimentation, Telazol is now the preferred drug because it wears off quickly and has no negative side effects.

The next day, we spent the morning visiting the Inuit museum in Churchill, the grain port and a new, civic complex that includes a fine hospital, school (60 K-12 grade students), indoor swimming pool, soccer court and bowling alley.

Then, as the sun went down, we climbed aboard our buggy for a night viewing of wildlife. The evening sky was glorious and there was a great stillness on the tundra. We parked, opened all the windows and waited for the bears to come, which they did from out of the shadows. After a light supper, wine was poured and for a while we forgot about the bears. Especially when it was announced that someone in our group had sung with the Les Brown Band for years. We begged her to serenade us, which she graciously did. Soon we were singing along. Did the bears enjoy the show? We will never know.

On our third and last day of bear hunting, we decided that we must see an arctic hare and we must see a lemming, which numbers in the thousands and is the essential diet for all the foxes and birds of prey. Although we strained our eyes and even offered a reward for a sighting, none was seen. Just more polar bears. Darn. (In the three days we had sighted more than 60)

That night was Halloween and because the children would be out trick-or-treating, the local police car and the fire truck were patrolling the town, especially Polar Bear Alley behind Main Street. For obvious reasons, youngsters are not allowed to dress up like polar bears.

The next morning as we waited for the bus to take us to airport, we were suddenly told to “hurry! hurry!” There was a surprise. We obliged and quickly realized that we were being taken to an actual “bear lift.”

On the ground, outside the bear jail was a mum and two cubs each wrapped in net and obviously sedated. We were so close that the almost tender actions of the several wardens in attendance slowly began to have an effect on me. When the helicopter arrived and carefully landed near the bears, a long cable was attached to the belly of the helicopter and slowly, and oh, so gently the bears were lifted as the craft rose vertically, with first mum, then, each of the cubs, in its net. Up and up they climbed as I watched them hanging from that thin cable, moving farther and farther away in the sky on their way to safety. It brought tears. What a poignant image.

What a climax to an unforgettable wildlife adventure. Postscript. The International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears signed by Canada, Denmark, Norway, the United States and the former U.S.S.R. has been in effect since 1976. It addresses the hunting of bears by the Inuit and trophy hunters. Although its precepts are somewhat vague, it has provided some management benefits to the species. However other threats are far more difficult to handle, such as human encroachment on bear habitat for oil extraction and global pollution.

Continuing levels of toxic chemicals in the oceans of the world represent a time bomb for many species, especially large carnivores like polar bears that are near the top of the food chain. And, finally, what we observed firsthand: the insidious effects of global warming or climate change. (I have read that ironically, as tundra thaws it releases methane, which becomes a “greenhouse gas,” actually contributing to global warming.

Trips to the tundra end about Nov. 15 because the bay should be completely frozen by then and the bears gone. But there was no sign of a freeze up when we left on Oct. 31. It appears that Hudson Bay is freezing later each year and is breaking up earlier each spring. The effects on polar bears is being studied along with at least three other research projects: Why do juveniles spar? What effects do the buggies have on bears? And what effect do bears have on humans?

To learn more about these magnificent bears, I recommend “Polar Bears” (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) by Ian Stirling. Wildlife activists can contact Polar Bears International, P.O. Box 66142, Baton Rouge LA 70896-6142 or www.polarbearsinternational.org.

Cherie Mason can be reached at 348-6971 or cheriemason@prexar.com.