Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Polar Bear Club

“It is relatively safe to walk around town during Bear Season . . .”
Churchill, Manitoba website

Photo by Mila Zinkova

It’s time for the annual gathering of the Polar Bear Club in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada (population 923). No, I don’t mean the goose-pimply people who plunge into icy waters. I mean real polar bears. A thousand of them gather around this small town to wait for the Hudson Bay to freeze so they can hunt seals. With the polar bears come thousands of tourists. Personally, bears scare the bejeezus out of me so I have no desire to see them up close, but I wouldn’t mind watching them from a safe distance. I’m in luck. This year, for the first time, the good people at Explore.org have set up two polar bear cams to provide live feeds from Churchill. The best time to see the polar bears is between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Central time. Check it out: http://explore.org (the website also offers direct links to each of the two webcams; see the Comments below for the direct links). It makes a nice addition to the raptor cam in Decorah, Iowa (see Empty Nest), and together the two make me grateful for technology and my toasty warm home.

The video below gives a good look at the polar bear experience in Churchill:


Read the article Watch the largest polar bear gathering in the world live via HD webcam

1 comment:

Beth Baugh said...

The Explore.org website offers direct links to each of the two polar bear cams. Here they are:

Polar Bear Lodge: http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/polar-bear-lodge-cam

Tundra Buggy: http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/polar-bear-tundra-buggy-cam