Bear
Necessities
Frontiers North is committed to
conservation of great white bears
by Rick Groom (with files from Pat St. Germain)
Norman
Polar
Exploration:
Tundra Buggies
give people closeup
views of bears, and
vice-versa.
Photo courtesy of
Frontiers North
Adventures
10 MBiz November 2012
M
erv Gunter has seen a lot of polar bears in his time. But the wonder of it never ceases for
the owner of Churchill's Tundra Buggy Tours and Frontiers North Adventures.
Thirty years after his first northern exposure, the height of the bears' social season in
October and November is still a thrill, as mothers tend their cubs and males roughhouse on the
shores of Hudson Bay before winter freezeup.
"They have this sparring behaviour that's totally atypical of bears. They're a very solitary animal,
but they socialize and they wrestle about," Gunter says.
"Every time I see that it just causes me to stop yet again and watch them, and it's a thoroughly
exhilarating experience even today."
