Daily 2020

Taking a walk

A polar bear (Ursus maritimus) walks through the dried grasses on the shores of Hudson Bay as he waits for freeze-up and seal hunting time on the ice, Churchill, Manitoba.

Judith I think the amount of snow, and the amount of sea ice, this year is around average. Because the tall grasses and the bushes stick up above the snow cover it can be deceptive, but the snow would probably come up to around your knees if you got out and walked near the bushes. I have some pics from another day where the bear is wading through snow up to its belly.

God's Child et al., in Canada we have 4 kinds of bears, the black bear (smallest and most common) the Kermode bear (a bit larger coastal genetic variation of the black bear that is white in color), the grizzly bear (much larger than the black bear, which can vary in colour from dark brown to blonde) and the polar bear (the largest of all the bears, which is white). Recently, as the arctic warms with climate change and the grizzlies expand north, we've had sightings of hybrids between grizzlies and polar bears called grolars or pizzlies, which are a light greyish brown in colour.

polar bearUrsus maritimusdried grassesshorelinelate autumnwalkingwillow bushesHudson BayChurchillManitoba