BEARS

So it's finally happening...the bears have arrived! Let me describe a recent typical sampling day:

- We get in the truck and head towards Da Bluff
- About a kilometre before Da Bluff, we stop at Bear Checkpoint #1
- We scan the bay. This takes a long time; the bay is still covered in bergie bits! (Yes, bergie bits - the official name for icebergs between 1 and 5m wide.) Through our binoculars, we pause at every white lump, every beige ball, every grey shadow...basically EVERYthing!
- We see a bear or two(!!!), off in the distance, and watch its behaviour.
- We keep watching.
- We keep watching.
- We decide it's far away enough from our site to proceed.
- We drive another few minutes, then stop at Bear Checkpoint #2
- Another thorough scan.
- More bear-watching.
- Finally, we get to Da Bluff. Our arrival, of course, is followed by more bear-checking and -watching.
- We spend some time discussing whether or not it is safe to sample under the current conditions.

So after half a morning of bear-watching, we may or may not get out to collect zooplankton. These circumstances have sparked an idea for another side research project: The Effects of Bear Abundance on Planktoneer Productivity.

Eh, Amanda? Another hypothesis to work into your proposal ;)

We've been doing quite a bit of this recently...standing by (and on) the truck contemplating the costs and benefits of rock bluffing with bears in the area.


Yesterday, we did feel safe sampling, even with two bears out on the ice. They were pretty far out, and we had a couple extra bodies come out with us: Riley, a volunteer at the CNSC, and Christy, an ex-planktoneer (yeeah Arctic Ecology 2006!) and fellow Guelphite who has just arrived in Churchill.

Having five in a group is great!! Amanda and I sampled, and both Christy and Riley helped Erinn with the bear-guarding duties. Amanda and I were super efficient. With bears lounging a mere few kilometres from us, we definitely cut the dawdling.

It's a good thing we were quick, because eventually we lost sight of the bears. Either they had lain down and were flat on the ice, or had walked behind some ice chunks, or had gone underwater. In any case, we thought it was best to pack up and go. On the way home, we just had to stop at this one beach and look at the ice. Churchill sure has its share of breathtaking views...
Here's Amanda standing on her very own growler - growler being the official word for icebergs less than 1m wide
Christy being glad to be back in Churchill!

Riley photographing ice.
Amand and Erinn poking at amphipods

So we've been having a few exciting days up here!! To add to that excitement (and not to let the bears take all the glory) is the return of the belugas! I am soooooooo glad to see them again! Last year we nicknamed our bluff "Beluga Bluff", because of all the belugas that we saw from atop the bluff...every single calm water day...hundreds of belugas, pods and pods...just swimming toward the east...then back toward the west.

We had one summery day last week, when the ice had broken up and blown away sufficiently that the belugas could swim by. They swam soooooo close to our bluff, right in the intertidal zone. During high tide, they kept hanging around this one beachy area, apparently rubbing their bellies on the rocky substrate. Erinn took a video but it is having trouble uploading :( So here are some pictures instead.

Unfortunately, the pictures really do no justice to how amazing and surreal it is to look over your shoulder as you're working and catch a beluga come up for air, hear its exhalation, and watch as it dives underwater again. At the bottom-left, you can see this one breathing out.
There's a beluga right in the middle. Belugas are much like seals in that they show up as dots in pictures.
Speaking of the return of wildlife, here's...Da Bunny!!!

He was MIA for a good three weeks and we were worried. But here he is, with more grey and less white in his fur...a sure sign of summer...right???
We are glad he is back, because now is certinaly a crucial time for good bear luck. We are also glad he is back because he is super cute and fluffy.

Now going back in time a bit more, we visited an interesting and eerie location last week. Usually it is closed, but we heard through the grapevine that it was open on this particular day, so we ventured there out of curiosity......

Colloquially the "Polar Bear Jail", it is a building where they store "problem bears" - bears that keep coming too close to humans, even after having firecrackers shot at them numerous times. The Jail is meant to be an unpleasant (but not inhumane) experience for the bear, so it learns not to return to settlement.

We learned from the polar bear safety course that problem bears tend to be weaker and maybe injured bears. Typically, they haven't been able to hunt seals successfully, so they are hungry. They hang around town or the dump, looking for an easy meal.
We guess they had the jail open to prepare it for the upcoming summer and bear season.

So those are our recent adventures! I am sure i'm forgetting something, because really too much has been happening. It's hard to believe that we've been here a month already...and it's hard to believe i'll be leaving in...Ten Days.