Photo Essay: An Escape to Churchill Wild

Bears bide their time awaiting winter ice that brings dinner (seals)

This photo tour of Churchill, Manitoba showcases the majesty of nature in the Canadian tundra

“A bear popped up ten meters away last week,” Ellott whispers. “That front door no longer exists,” intoned Terry Elliott, lead guide at Seal River Lodge, Churchill Wild’s remote enclosure about 100 miles north of Churchill, Manitoba. Elliott wasn’t suggesting we’d remain safely within the compound, however. Churchill Wild’s all about slinking through sea lime “adrenaline” grass to get the best angles on Ursus maritimus, the polar bear – the largest land predator in the world.

Bear fur stranded on fireweed

Three- and four-year-old bears sparring on the spit

Churchill Wild’s Seal River Lodge and compound

Adolescent bears often spend several days buddied up

Terry Elliott surveying for bears atop a glacial erratic

Tundra view towards Hudson Bay

Toronto-based travel writer Amy Rosen pressing against permafrost ice

Snowy owl pellet

Arctic hare mid-molt between summer and winter

Siksik males maintain a vast underground harem and maze

Bears often visit the enclosure to check out bipedal mammal scents

Sleeping bear from Seal River Lodge dining room

“Tundratini” at cocktail hour in Seal River Lodge

Morning biscuits before snorkeling with belugas

One can snorkel with beluga whales, aka “sea canaries,” and listen for their constant song

A playful adolescent from about 50 metres

Sandhill Cranes nest in the tundra