Photo Essay: An Escape to Churchill Wild

Take a photo tour of Churchill, Manitoba where beautiful scenery and wildlife abound

Credit: Crai S Bower

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.

Credit: Crai S Bower

Bear fur stranded on fireweed

Credit: Crai S Bower

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

Credit: Crai S Bower

Churchill Wild’s Seal River Lodge and compound

Credit: Crai S Bower

Adolescent bears often spend several days buddied up

Credit: Crai S Bower

Terry Elliott surveying for bears atop a glacial erratic

Credit: Crai S Bower

Tundra view towards Hudson Bay

Credit: Crai S Bower

Toronto-based travel writer Amy Rosen pressing against permafrost ice

Credit: Crai S Bower

Snowy owl pellet

Credit: Crai S Bower

Arctic hare mid-molt between summer and winter

Credit: Crai S Bower

Siksik males maintain a vast underground harem and maze

Credit: Crai S Bower

Bears often visit the enclosure to check out bipedal mammal scents

Credit: Crai S Bower

Sleeping bear from Seal River Lodge dining room

Credit: Crai S Bower

“Tundratini” at cocktail hour in Seal River Lodge

Credit: Crai S Bower

Morning biscuits before snorkeling with belugas

Credit: Crai S Bower

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

Credit: Crai S Bower

A playful adolescent from about 50 metres

Credit: Crai S Bower

Sandhill Cranes nest in the tundra

Credit: Crai S Bower

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