Wildlife Rhythms

Wild Reality (Latest): Joy of Polar Bears: Hungry for the Seal Buffet

Manitoba, Canada, November 2008: See the amazing polar bears of Hudson Bay.

In November, the temperatures are below freezing in Churchill Manitoba, Canada, a small port town on the edge of Hudson Bay. The wind bites your face and chills your core, and it's just as cold for the endangered polar bears too.

Hudson Bay freezes over each year between late October and mid- November and the Hudson Bay bears migrate to the shoreline during this period, returning from the south where they've spend their summer months.

The frozen bay enables the famished polar bears to hunt for their favorite meal - fur seals who feed under the ice and rest on ice floes. The thin and hungry bears haven't eaten in four months.

During the time that they wait for the bay to freeze over, the bears burrow themselves into the snow to stay warm and to conserve precious energy. The wide expanse of snow, sometimes shielded by snow flurries, makes it difficult to spot these bears, tiny dots of pale yellow hardly noticeable in this surreal landscape.

They move very little, except to take a peek at the ice, to whiff the air for the scent of a meal, or to roll around in the snow to keep their fur exceptionally clean. If lucky, you can witness male juveniles practicing their fighting skills in preparation for adulthood.