JoAnne is in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, to study polar bears. Read her previous post from the field, Polar Bears: Who Was Your First?

I will open by telling you that this story will break your heart. Please know this will not be easy to read, but it is a story that needs to be told.
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JoAnne is in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, to study polar bears.

I am sitting out in the middle of the Churchill tundra. I am rocking back and forth in a Tundra Buggy as 44 mile-per-hour (70 kilometer-per-hour) winds blow the snow all around. I think back to my first wild polar bear sighting.
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As fall has come, so has quiet to the Conrad Prebys Polar Bear Plunge. The management yard is being well used by Chinook. She certainly has her routine down: greet Tatqiq and Kalluk over the moat, find treats, eat treats, dip in pool, roll in dirt, completely cover entire body except for the white fur around eyes, go inside and see what my keeper is up to. Oh, too bad the nice clean bedrooms are now covered with muddy paw prints! Chinook really has perfected the art of the dirt roll! Still no confirmation of pregnancy, but also no behavioral change to indicate she is not pregnant. Our fingers are still tightly crossed.
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The San Diego Zoo’s polar bear Chinook is keeping us all on the edge of our seats. As we move deeper into November, we are yet to see any definitive behavioral or physiological changes that would tell us that Chinook is pregnant…or that she’s not pregnant! With each passing day, we continue to document what she’s doing and how she’s doing it. Chinook’s den is ready, and we are listening to her and providing her with whatever she needs.
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Ron is in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, working with Polar Bears International. Read his previous post, Reaching Out for Polar Bears.

What I want to talk about to today is hope—hope for conservation, and hope for our planet even though it is facing unprecedented environmental challenges. I’m in Churchill in Manitoba, Canada, working with friends and collaborators at Polar Bears International. It’s a surreal experience going out on the Tundra Buggies and seeing wild polar bears. But underneath this joyful experience there is also sadness, because I know that this “polar bear capital” may one day have no polar bears. By now, most of us know that the polar bears are losing their sea-ice habitat and here, at the southern end of their range, they will disappear first. We’ve already lost almost a quarter of them in the past 15 years. In another 15, there may be no polar bears left in Churchill.
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Ron is in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, working with Polar Bears International. Read his previous post, The Polar Bears of Churchill.

This really is shaping up to be an amazing experience. Each day I go out on the Tundra Buggy, run by Frontiers North Adventures. Oh, and by the way, they are giving us a free pass on the Tundra Buggy and a room in the Tundra Lodge. They like what we are doing, trying to bring more attention to the plight of the polar bear. And it’s hard to imagine a species more deserving of attention than polar bears. They are the world’s largest terrestrial carnivores, and they are impressive.
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I saw a bear. Okay, I saw six. And it only took a couple of hours. I’ve been working with bears for many years now, and this is not what I’m used to. I’ve worked most extensively with giant pandas, and it took me years to see a panda in the wild. Recently, I started working with Andean (or spectacled) bears and, with a lot of sweat and hard work (and the help of an experienced collaborator), managed to see ONE in Peru (see post The Bear Goes Over the Mountain). But here, polar bears are everywhere! For now.

I’m in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, known as the polar bear capital of the world. I’m here as a guest of my friends and collaborators (and supporters!) at Polar Bears International. This is a terrific organization, and they have given me a terrific opportunity. More on that later. The bears are beautiful! I can’t wait to share more about the bears in my next posts.
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In May of 2008, the polar bear was classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This historic listing was heralded as a timely and necessary protection for this magnificent animal. But as climate change was identified as the primary threat to the persistence of the polar bear, the legislation clearly eliminated any possibility of using the listing to initiate or enforce regulations that would curb greenhouse gas emissions. For those of us involved in polar bear conservation, we were left scratching our heads. How was this listing any more than window dressing if there was no way for it to drive the changes that would promote polar bear conservation?
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Good question! First, the construction is done. The new management yard has only the aesthetic details to be done: topsoil, planting, logs, etc. Most of this will be done over the next few weeks as time permits or if/when Chinook decides she no longer needs to venture anywhere but her den.
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Saturday, October 10, the San Diego Zoo is holding the 4th annual Walk on the Wild Side presented by USA Fed Credit Union event. This year the funds raised will go toward our work with our conservation partner Polar Bears International. Thank you to all the teams that have signed up to walk and to everyone who has pledged a donation! Chinook, Kalluk, and Tatqiq wish your feet well.
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