written and photographed by Mary L. Peachin
Jan 2005, Vol. 5 No. 3
The frigid, turbulent waters of Hudson Bay solidify in late fall, allowing the local cadre of polar bears to migrate northward over the ice packs toward their seal-hunting grounds—leaving their summer home on the barren tundra surrounding the frontier town of Churchill, Manitoba. The bears are hungry; since the spring thaw, they’ve eaten little but berries, and their lethargy is evident. At a distance, when the monstrous canine incisors and claws are hidden, these great animals look like nothing so much as oversized creamy-white teddy bears—a far cry from the ferocious, sometimes cannibalistic carnivores they are.