THE WORLD CAPITAL OF POLAR BEARS
A journey to Churchill, in Canada — the southernmost place on Earth where, between October and November, polar bears can be observed. Yet with global warming and melting ice, these magnificent creatures face a real risk of extinction
Once a year, Churchill becomes the world capital of polar bears. Between October and November, in this remote Canadian village overlooking Hudson Bay (population one thousand, two hours by plane from Winnipeg or two days by train), the bears wait for the bay to freeze completely before heading north in search of seals. The bears are hungry, having endured a lean summer — a season of near-starvation. To hunt seals, the bay must be frozen, as the bears catch their prey when it surfaces through breathing holes in the ice.
In summer, Churchill is a port that ships much of Canada’s grain to Europe; in winter, it turns into a tourist attraction. There is no other place this far south in the world where one can watch the nanuk — as the Inuit call these three-meter-tall creatures — roaming near the village for about six weeks, drawn by the scent of food. They are dangerous, of course: no one walks outside the village alone, and the police patrol day and night.
But the true threat to the bears is global warming. It means famine and isolation. Climate change is melting the ice closest to the fish-rich continental shelf, where seals live — and seals, in turn, feed on cod. As a result, the bears risk being stranded for long periods on drifting Arctic ice, far from seals and fish, starving and forced into exhausting migrations. Will a few generations be enough for them to change habits and survival strategies developed over hundreds of thousands of years? Scientists are not optimistic: the bears of Hudson Bay may be the first to disappear.
