[ECO]Polar bear week is here!

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Polar bear week is here!

It’s time again to make my list and check it twice. No, it’s (thankfully) not Christmas yet, but ‘tis the season for me to create a packing list while I get ready to head over to Churchill, Manitoba, for the annual polar bear gathering. I’ll be grabbing lots of layers, plenty of warm socks, toques, parkas, mukluks, and more to get ready for another exciting visit to the coast of Hudson Bay – including a celebration of

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, which runs through November 2

Each year, as temperatures start to cool down and days get shorter, polar bears in western Hudson Bay begin to move toward the coastline in anticipation of the bay freezing over for the winter. Throughout the summer, these polar bears have been stuck on land, mostly bored and fasting. But when the ocean freezes, their main prey, seals, become available again – accessible via the sea ice. Though we don’t tend to anthropomorphize the bears, we can’t help but assume that they get excited as the winter approaches and a meal of seal blubber starts to become a real possibility. Thanks to their anticipation and hunger, we know where and when we can find them each October and November.

This annual pattern in northern Manitoba allows us to watch the world’s biggest bear up close. People flock to Churchill to view and learn about these magnificent white animals, and Polar Bears International is right there to celebrate the bears, too. We speak to people near and far about polar bear ecology, research, and conservation efforts. 

• Polar Bear Cams: With our incredible partner, explore.org, we
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  from across the tundra. Throughout the fall, you can check out the two Lodge Cams in the Wildlife Management Area, Cape Cams at Cape Churchill, or our roaming Buggy One Cam, all from the comfort of your home (or work!). Join us to see what the polar bears are up to any time of day, which may include snacking, wrestling, sleeping, and always being curious. Off-season, you can watch highlight reels or watch the dancing northern lights thanks to the Aurora Cam mounted on the Churchill Northern Studies Centre.

• Tundra Connections: Our long-running program of live,
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  hits its peak each year during polar bear season. Students around the world tune in to watch polar bears in real time while learning about different themes like adaptations, coexistence, climate action, genetics, and more. Teachers also have full access to our free online library of educational materials, including units and lessons for all ages.

• Polar Bears International House: Open to the public daily during bear season,
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  offers visitors a broad overview of polar bear ecology and helps put the bears in Churchill in context with polar bears across the Arctic. Our Ambassadors ( professionals in the polar bear world) welcome everyone to this cozy space and are eager to deep ***** into cutting edge polar bear research, discuss conservation efforts, and motivate visitors to support climate action.

While we love to bring people and polar bears together in these ways, we are also working on how to keep polar bears and people physically apart across the north.

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Image: Polar Bears International

As our world warms and sea ice decreases, polar bears are spending more time on land in more places. Because Polar Bears International’s goal is to see polar bears roam the Arctic for many generations to come, we have an obligation to also support the people who will be increasingly forced to coexist with this species. This means offering northerners increased support in the form of effective tools that are also safer for bears (e.g., fences, bear spray, bear bangers, cracker shells), deterrence training, and education/outreach efforts.

We are also supporting the development of innovative technology to make our safety toolbox as big as possible. For example, our “Bear-dar” system is training radar with artificial intelligence. We are teaching the AI what a polar bear looks like so that this radar can eventually be set up in a camp or community or town and send an alert when it detects a polar bear coming. This could give people a chance to get indoors or somewhere safe and give officials a better chance to scare away the bear before anything escalates. Such an early warning detection system could help keep both people and polar bears safer and support coexistence as our world continues to warm.  

We would love to tell you more about these amazing bears and the various efforts to protect them and you can

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. If you can’t join us in person for Polar Bear Week and bear season, please check out our live streaming cameras from now until late November and join us for any

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! We will also be posting fun and informative social media posts all season long and would be happy to answer your questions.

Thanks for watching, see you on the tundra!

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Image: BJ Kirschhoffer/Polar Bears International

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