Cape Churchill Polar Bears
Cape Churchill, Hudson Bay, Canada · Arctic & Subarctic · polar
About this place
Track Ursus maritimus fasting physiology, solar-trapping pelage, and autumn sea-ice freeze-up on western Hudson Bay.
For kids: Meet giant polar bears with hollow greenhouse fur and warm black skin waiting for winter sea ice!
Cape Churchill Polar Bears · 360° Habitat Camp
What to look for
- Leeward snow-pit ridge — Ursus maritimus day bed. Locate the leeward coastal snow ridge used for wind-sheltered resting pits
- Slush & pancake-ice shore — Autumn grease-ice freeze-up. Centre the shoreline freeze-up zone where grease ice consolidates
- Subarctic scent-wind sky — Long-range olfactory plume. Scan the onshore wind corridor carrying marine scent plumes
Source: Stirling & Derocher (2012), Global Change Biology — Sea-ice freeze-up phenology and Ursus maritimus energy budgets.
Ask together: If you walked in freezing wind, would you pick hollow greenhouse fur like a polar bear or thick blubber like a seal—and why?
Field quiz
Kids' question: What color is a polar bear's skin hidden underneath its snowy-looking coat?
- Jet black to soak up warm sunshine
- Bright pink like a flamingo
- Icy blue like glacier water
Answer
Jet black to soak up warm sunshine
Adults' question: How do Hudson Bay polar bears sustain muscle mass during months ashore without seal prey?
- Oxidizing stored seal blubber while recycling urea nitrogen
- Pursuit-hunting tundra caribou herds daily
- Entering deep sub-zero permafrost hibernation
- Grazing protein-rich marine kelp exclusively
Answer
Oxidizing stored seal blubber while recycling urea nitrogen
360° photo: GreenlandEcosystemMonitoring, CC BY-SA 4.0
See it live: Live check: Cape Churchill Polar Bear Cam
- By day
- Polar bears patrolling gravel ridges, Arctic foxes, or snowy owls
- By night
- Resting polar bears in snow hollows & aurora borealis over Hudson Bay Cape Churchill sits directly beneath the auroral oval, so clear subarctic nights often reveal geomagnetic aurora curtains above resting bears.
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