Churchill Part 1 (Polar Bears)

[TravelingChick]

We just finished up our adventure in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. We traveled with Natural Habitat Adventures to go see the bears as they wait for the ice to come back to Hudson Bay. We had two full days and an evening on the polar rovers, a helicopter flight, a run on a dogsled and the bonus northern lights.

This post is the 1st with bears seen from the polar rover. The rovers are built on airport firetruck frames. They seat 32, but NatHab does small groups of 16 so everyone has a window and there is lots of room for gear. There's a flush toilet, and we had excellent lunches and hot drinks provided throughout the day. We were not allowed to leave the rover other than to go onto the back deck. All of the side windows opened, so there was plenty of room to shoot.

As you can see, some of the bears came quite close to the rovers:




This was day 1. This particular bear hung around quite close for a while.



And a close-up of the massive paw and claws.

[Joe_T]

Great shots. That closeup of that huge paw is amazing.1

[blackfox]

Wow lovely shots

[Ian]

I like the paw shot The poor bears are having a tough time with the receding ice. Those rovers look like fun!

Ian

[TravelingChick]

Last year was a good sea ice year; this year's ice should be back by the end of November. Fingers crossed! The rovers WERE fun!

[shakyHands]

If I was on the back of that rover I would be wondering how high a bear can jump!

[TravelingChick]

They can't really jump, but they can stand on their back legs and stretch up. Our guide showed us a pic from last season of about 11 feet of bear trying to look onto the back deck!!

[MJ224]

Gosh, some super photos. Many thanks for sharing....

[Gerry]

Brilliant set from what appears to have been a great trip.