As the world turns its eyes to the 2024 Paris Olympics, the “Polar Bear Capitol of the World” in Churchill, Manitoba begins preparations to welcome back its furry friends from Canada’s interior. Every year as autumn nears, polar bears make their way to the western shores of Hudson Bay to wait for sea ice to form. Some of these bears are mothers to new cubs that await their first winter outside the safety of their mother’s den. These cubs will soon realize the harsh realities of life on the Arctic Sea Ice, the impending threats from matured male polar bears, and the opportunity to hunt alongside their mother for their first ocean meals.
In recent years, Arctic sea ice has become a noticeable hindrance to polar bears' winter campaigns as the Arctic's temperatures continue to fluctuate and affect sea ice formation. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reveals that in mid-July 2024, there was just 3.14 million square miles of sea ice (seventh lowest according to available data for the month of July). With this data comes the potential implication of a longer freezing period and the shortening of polar bears' seal hunting season. As the most carnivorous member of the bear family, sea ice is a necessary ingredient for a healthy diet of meat and fat for polar bears. Without sea ice, polar bears are forced to scavenge along the coastline, suppressing their appetite with berries and seaweed.
When autumn returns, Environment and Climate Change Canada will assist the University of Alberta as they collar female polar bears between the ages of 5 and 25 to monitor their locations throughout the winter. This data will then be published on the website of the world’s leading nonprofit for polar bear conservation: Polar Bears International. One of the polar bears being monitored was collared on October 31, 2022, at the age of 25 and goes by the name “Anuri”. At that time, Anuri was a mother to a single young cub and since then, has traveled over 2,700 miles. Her last recorded movements indicate that she made it safely to shore on May 6, 2024, near Whale Cove on the western coast of Hudson Bay as the sea ice was melting.
As autumn nears, Anuri and the rest of the polar bears that regularly visit Hudson Bay will make their way to the familiar shoreline near Churchill, Manitoba once more. There, they will await the formation of their passageway of ice before they venture into a new maze of ice and ocean. The warm summer nights of lounging in wildflowers will give way to cold and treacherous excursions beneath the dazzling northern lights. The details of each exciting hunt and the motivations for each movement across the Arctic landscape will remain an eternal secret kept by the Polar Bears of Hudson Bay.
