Hello All Day 2
Our adventure luck continued yesterday. Driving out to our tundra rover, we spotted our first polar bear. He was at a moderate distance just walking along but the cameras were flashing even through the ice-covered windows of our bus. Our driver, Bob, spotted him.
It took a little over a half hour to reach the rover. The road to the rover is partly paved. That was done because the Queen was going to visit. What we do for royalty! However she never took the road, but it was nice to have a smooth road at least part of the way. You get off the bus and walk straight on to the rover. Pretty clever how that was engineered. Once on the rover we take our seats and all fifteen of us have our own window. We then traveled over very rough terrain for almost two hours looking at the vast expanse of nothingness. There are tracks spotted from covey of ptarmigans. They are a cute little bird with feathers on their feet and legs, but no bears yet. Then we spot a mom with a coy (cub of the year -since cubs usually stay with their mom for three years.) I was able to get some great video of both. Then shortly thereafter we see a mom with three cubs. This is most unusual. The female bear must be super healthy to have three cubs. We heard one story that one of the other rover drivers has been doing this for twenty-three years and this was a first. Then last night one of the local people said she saw three sets of triplets during covid when Churchill was shut down. Whatever story you want to believe it is very rare and a good sign for the polar bear population.
Then we see a young male. Polar bears are in their prime around ten years of age. Garrett, our guide, believed that this male was about that. Suddenly we see the mom with the three cubs running. Since polar bears have not eaten in months this is dangerous for her as she does not want to spend any more energy than necessary. However, she must run because the male bear, if he catches her, will most likely eat the cubs. Glad the male got distracted and stopped the chase. We later saw her in some bushes sleeping. Mom and her cubs were safe for the moment.
Yes we talked about global warming and how it is most likely going to lead to extinction of the polar bear. Yes climate has changed throughout the centuries but it is the rate of change that is the problem. The speed at which the ice cap is melting is the problem.
The polar bear is the key stone animal in this area. Polar bears only eat the fat from the seal and leave the rest of the animal. This gives fox the leftovers plus all the other animals even the insects that feed on the remains. A polar bear to survive their fast need to eat a seal about every ten days. I have not figured out yet how they can get all the nutrients they need from just the fat. Nature is amazing!
Later on we saw a huge male come up to the rover ahead of us. He jumped up on the rover. I was jealous and wished he would come over to us. He did and almost jumped up on the rover right by my now open widow. Tom got a few great photos, but then a window slammed, and he went away. Then we found a sleeping bear where we ate lunch. We had salad, a choice of pulled pork or duck sandwiches. Yum!! While we were there we saw one male coming straight for the sleeping bear. Of course we watched to see what drama would evolve but the walking bear passed peacefully at a distance. Saw a total of 12 bears our first day on the tundra.
More to Follow,
Tom & Holly
