Written and photographed by Yvette Cardozo and Bill Hirsch
Vol. 10 No. 1
Photographing polar bears in Manitoba’s 4,300 square mile Wapusk National Park (Cree for “great white bear”) or the nearby larger Cape Churchill Wildlife Management Area is literally bone chilling. Tundra, that flat plateau dotted with bonsai-stunted spruce trees and wind rippled snow and ice evokes a unique beauty, one similar to that found in southwestern deserts. But we didn’t come to this desolate area in the frigid winter for its landscape; we came as photographers. Wapusk is home to one of the world’s largest polar bear denning populations.