2024 has been a great year for polar bear encounters in Churchill, Canada. Week One was amazing, but our second VIP Polar Bear Photography Tour was off the chart in terms of the amount of bears in the area. On our best day, I counted 16 different polar bears; an incredible density of apex predators for this small stretch of sub arctic coastline.
The reason that we see so many bears near Churchill, is that the ice in this part of Hudson Bay freezes first. This gives the bears early access to the ice sheet where the bears hunt for seals and belugas. Before the ice hardens enough for them to head north, the bears congregate along the shore right where we run our tours.
Day One – Arrival in Churchill. An epic start!
After a quick meet and greet at Churchill Airport, we wisked our second group of guests to White Whale Lodge (our cozy hotel in the middle of the tundra, far from the hustle and bustle of town) to get changed and set up cameras. Then we immediately headed out onto the tundra. We soon came across two nice bears wandering along the beach next to a quarry. One was quite far off, but the second approached closely in good light for some great images.
Our third bear was loping along the notorious Polar Bear Alley in the direction of a mom with two third year cubs. As soon as the threesome picked up his scent, they ran up into the rocks and dissappeared.
We continued onward to Bird Cove; one of the most remote peninsulas and a great place for bear sightings. In the bay next to the cove we had a fantastic encounter with a mom and her two tiny first year cubs.
Later, we found another mom and cub hunkered down in the rocks. And yet another mom and cub on the far side of the cove. Eventually we pick up the same mom and cub when they emerged from a patch of willows and started heading inland.
Our 14th polar bear of the day was a big male moving slowly next to the road.
Our 15th and final bear was a very timid animal, running across the ice more than 1 km away. Its not clear who he was running from, but we left him in peace and returned to the lodge to download images and get ready for dinner in town.
Day Two
We saw our first bears just a few minutes from the lodge; a mom and cub sleeping on the far edge of a lake. They weren’t doing much so we continued on to Bird Cove to see if any of the previous day’s bears were still there. The mom with two young cubs were sitting by some willows. After a while mom let her cubs nurse, which is a testament to how relaxed she felt with us nearby.
Further into the cove, we spotted a polar bear rolling around scratching his back in the dirt. He looked pretty healthy so he was probably just getting rid of some parasites, but by the time he was done, he was thoroughly caked in dust and mud and looked more like a grizzly bear than a polar bear!
We relocated to Ithaca Point; another peninsula, but one with a large half-submerged wreck that lends its name to the area. Here we found a beautiful clean solo bear foraging on the beach.
We saw another mom and cub far off on the tundra, probably trying to keep away from hungry males that wouldn’t think twice if they managed to get close enough to snatch a cub.
We continued on to Polar Bear Alley where we found our ‘rockstar’ bear family. This is a mom and her two third year cubs that have been relaxing in the same area in the alley for a couple of weeks. They’re pretty comfortable around humans, so we stayed for a while and composed some great images.
While making a quick pitstop at the lodge, we came across a nice cross fox. Cross foxes are partially melanistic red foxes. There is also a variety called a silver fox which is jet black except for the white tip on its tail. Cross foxes are more common, and like all foxes on the tundra, they are usually more than happy to hang out with humans even though we never feed them. This is a level of trust that canids seem to possess, more than all other predatory mammals.
Later we saw another mom with two cubs disappearing over a ledge, bringing our daily total to 15 bears yet again.
Day Three
As soon as it was light enough to hit the trails we went straight to Bird Cove, where we found a large polar bear foraging in the willows, and another off in the distance.
Our third bear was sitting in the wind and snow on an exposed point of rock overlooking the water. Even polar bears hunker down when the weather deteriorates, so this one soon hopped down off the rocks, walked past the hood of our vehicle, and flopped down on the snow right next to us. It was a great moment for some close up video of the snow drifting past the bear’s face as he looked up at us.
Returning west, we found four bears at the entrance to Polar Bear Alley. Two of them were up on their find legs taking swings at each other and biting at each other’s necks and faces. It was a dramatic scene, even though it was clear this was a training bout between two youngish adult males that knew each other (probably siblings) rather than a heavyweight championship match between two alpha males competing for a female.
The nice thing about ‘play fights’ is that they keep going for a long time. These two young testosterone filled males, put on a show all afternoon, resulting in world-class photographic opportunities.
The sparring went on so long that we were eventually distracted by a nice cross fox on the beach, that we turned and photographed for a while.
Later we saw a mom with two cubs out on a lake, but today, the sparring bears stole the show.
Day Four
We saw our first polar bear right at the fence, before we even left the lodge. This is one of the many reasons we stay at White Whale Lodge rather than sleeping at one of the hotels in town. To everyone’s delight, we get regular visits from bears and foxes. We even saw a beautiful white mink the week before, but it was a quick encounter and I didn’t get a shot of it.
After the bear wandered away from the fence, we returned to Polar Bear Alley to find that the sparring bears were at it again! As we already had great images from the previous day, we picked and chose our vantage, so that we could get even better images from the best perspective possible. Just like the first time, the play fighting continued for hours!
Eventually, a third bear joined the sparring bears and they collectively headed off into the rocks.
Later, we went back to Bird Cove, but there was only one solitary bear snooozing on the hillside so we moved on.
Next we found a red fox and a cross fox hunting together and spent quite a while photographing them.
Shortly afterwards, we watched a mom with cubs materialize out of some spruce trees and pick their way down a rocky slope onto a frozen lake in gorgeous golden light. A few minutes later, a big male appeared, hot on their scent. He stopped on the road to push on a road sign (bears often do this) and then continued his pursuit of the mom and cubs.
We caught up with the sparring bears yet again in the late afternoon. They had moved onto a distant lake that was a bit far for good images, but still fun to watch as they crashed into one another.
At dusk we spotted a silver fox, it was not the best light to shoot a black animal running around on the tundra, but I snapped a few shots anyway because silver foxes are quite rare compared to their cross fox and red fox variants.
Day Five
The day started with five foxes running around in the pre dawn light, just outside the gates of the lodge.
The foxes were eventually joined a polar bear, who may have been wondering if the foxes had found something to eat that he could muscle in on.
Leaving the lodge, we made our way to Stiggy Creek where two bears were snoozing on a low ice shelf formed by the incoming waves in the slushy, semi-frozen bay.
We found a mom with two second year cubs on the move at Bird Cove and then two more bears chillin’ in some willows at Ithaca Point.
We came across another bear infront of an abandoned radar tower, now covered in an huge abstract mural. This made a strange but interesting backdrop for a polar bear portrait.
Later we spotted a distant mom and cub far off in the bay to the east of Ithaca point, bringing today’s bear total up to 10.
Day Six
Our final official day started with a distant bear across a lake which we quickly lost interest in because there were so many foxes out and about looking for lemmings and voles.
I spent quite a lot of time videoing foxes and then we made our way west and ran into the sparring bears yet again. I am still amazed by how much energy they had! After days of fighting, they were still able to rise up on their hind legs and slap away at each other, even though at this is the time of year they are at their hungriest.
In the afternoon, we came across a snow hare cleaning his paws and shadow boxing with some imaginary opponent.
Then yet more foxes. You might think we’d get bored with foxes, but they are so bold and charismatic that we decided to stop and photograph them virtually every time we saw them.
Our most memorable encounter was with a mom with two cubs being stalked from one spot to another across frozen lakes and tundra by a relentless male. At one point mom rested for a while behind some willows with her cubs, then took off at great speed when the male got too close. At that point the male went to her resting spot and after sniffing the ground, started rolling around in her scent trail. Some days, its like being in a wildlife documentary.
Finally at dusk, an arctic fox came out of the undergrowth and started hunting near the vehicle, I didn’t see it but one of our guests got some great shots.
It was an excellent last day, but there was more to come! That night the clouds thinned out and gave us an otherworldly display of the northern lights to finish off a perfect week on the Canadian Tundra. I concentrated on shooting the aurora over an old bombadier snow vehicle that is set up in the compound of White Whale Lodge.
Bonus Day!
The following day we were scheduled to fly out, but as the flight was not until the evening, some of our guests elected to add on an extra day on the tundra. It was definitely a good call, because we saw 16 bears, lots of foxes, and finally had a good encounter with a beautiful arctic fox. We even saw more sparring bears, this time a different pair that were bigger and a bit more serious, although it still had an element of practice fighting about it.
We finished the afternoon with selfies on the ice in front of a beautiful sunset. It was an epic trip to remember!
Join our 2025 VIP Polar Bear Photography Adventure
After year’s incredible polar bear trips, I am very excited to be leading our 2025 Polar Bear Photography Tours which start in late October. We are almost full for the 2025 season, but we have a few spots available if you would like to join us on our next VIP Polar Bear Photography Adventure.
