October 6th
Today was probably one of the most exciting days for us! We woke up at seven, at breakfast, then got picked up by helicopters and we were taken to a maternal den. It was my first time in a helicopter and it was so exciting. When we got to the maternal den, we were able to crawl inside it (only because it was abandoned). The maternal den was in the permafrost and was most likely abandoned because the permafrost is melting, meaning the den would eventually collapse. We were also able to run around on the tundra, which was really squishy. I felt like I was walking on a sponge. The maternal den was on the coast line of Quantum lake, and parts of the lake were frozen, so I spent most of my time trying to break the ice. The ice breaking makes the coolest sound ever. We even found berries growing on the tundra that someone convinced me to eat by saying they were cranberries…I found out later that they weren’t cranberries but luckily they weren’t poisonous either so I didn’t get sick. Later at dinner we all presented songs, movies, and other presentations that we made for our last night sleeping on the tundra buggy.

October 7th
Today is our last day on the tundra buggy! I woke up and looked outside and saw two polar bears playing! It was so cute. We all made plans of action for our next step when we get home. My plan is to put on some type of music concert on with local bands and try to minimize the Co2 output by planting trees, or not using much energy, or doing something that will make a statement to raise awareness for our environment. I also want to hold some sort of fashion show using recycled materials and old clothes to put together a line.

Here is a movie I made over the past few days. Enjoy!

Today we woke up again at 7:30! We saw about 4 bears today, 1 arctic fox, 1 muskrat, ptarmigan, and an arctic hair. We spent a lot of time on the Tundra buggy today. It was such a beautiful day! We spent plenty time looking at bears today and we even saw one chase a muskrat! It was so excellent. We even got to spend time on the tundra and I got to lay down on it because it was squishy and was incredible. All of us were so excited to finally unload out of the tundra buggy and be graced with presence of a squishy tundra. We even got to put our hands in the Hudsons bay. In the morning we listened to Michael Goodyear speak to us about ring seals that live in the arctic. The ring seal is also the polar bears main diet. The ring seal are called ring seal because their fur has ring shapes on it.
Dear ring seals,
I am so sorry that you are eaten everyday all the time by the polar bears, but it’s not my fault that the polar bears enjoy indulging in your delicious blubber which is a very jelly-like substance that leaves their polar tongues covered in grease
Love,
Cassidy.

Dear polar bears,
Keep eating the ring seals because I don’t want you to eat any of us.
Love,
Cassidy
That’s all I have to say today. Aloha!

“I hate to get up in the morning, I rather remain in bed. I hate to get up in the morning, I’d much rather sleep instead” Today we woke up at 7:30 Robbert sang us a lovely song to wake us up in the morning. We ate breakfast at eight which consisted of flat golden pancakes, steaming savory sausages, and crispy toast. After eating breakfast, Robert presented a power point about public speaking, then we all split and got with our groups to rehearse a skit about the animals affected by global warming, that we later presented to the rest of the group. After that we played spoons a professional card game that only professional card gamers play (us tundra inhabitants are pro-card-gamers). Then I drew a picture of a crazy man and it was fun. At lunch time we had some good grinds. We had grilled cheese and tomato soup. Katie spit sprite in her bright orange tomato soup and Seany poo loved it. After lunch we enjoyed looking at polar bears! One of them slept by our moving lodge and it woke up and came over to socialize with us. The polar bear was beary cute and was so curious! It came rite up to the moving lodge and stood up against the wheel. I got some good videos and pictures of him it was fabulous!

“I hate to get up in the morning, I rather remain in bed. I hate to get up in the morning, I’d much rather sleep instead” Today we woke up at 7:30 to a beautiful voice of an angel sent from the depths of hell who sang the lovely wake up song to us. We ate breakfast at eight which consisted of flat golden pancakes, steaming savory sausages, and crispy toast. After eating breakfast, Robert presented a power point about public speaking, then we all split and got with our groups to rehearse a skit about the animals affected by global warming, that we later presented to the rest of the group. After that we played spoons a professional card game that only professional card gamers play (us tundra inhabitants are pro-card-gamers). Then I drew a picture of a crazy man and it was fun. At lunch time we had some good grinds. We had grilled cheese and tomato soup. Katie spit sprite in her bright orange tomato soup and Seany poo loved it. After lunch we enjoyed looking at polar bears! One of them slept by our moving lodge and it woke up and came over to socialize with us. The polar bear was beary cute and was so curious! It came rite up to the moving lodge and stood up against the wheel. I got some good videos and pictures of him it was fabulous!

This blog was co-written with Beth.

Today we woke up at 7:30 am and ate delicious food at Gypsy’s restaurant. After breakfast, we were led on a tour of Churchill. On the list was the polar bear jail, the old Churchill dump, and the new dump. We went to the dump because the polar bears used to go to the dump and eat garbage. The people of Churchill decided to take action to protect the bears and put the garbage inside where the bears couldn’t get to it.
After lunch we arrived at the Parks Canada office and received a presentation on the research projects in Wapusk National Park. The research was mainly centered on population management. The researchers studied population dynamics in snow geese, and polar bears, as well as their effects on the surrounding area.
There are currently eight fugitives staying at the Churchill Polar Bear Jail. We were not allowed to see them because Manitoba Conservation wants to minimize bear and human contact. Therefore, we looked to other places to find polar bears. After being loaded on to the Tundra Buggy we proceeded on to the moving lodge. On the way, we encountered numerous amounts of magnificent “tundra inhabitants” also known as animals. These included, ptarmigans, caribou, bald eagles, Canada geese, arctic hares, peregrine falcons, and polar bears! We saw our first bear about 150 feet away and the next two bears came rite up to the buggy. Theses were our reactions to seeing the bears:

Beth: I got something called bear fever’ when I first saw the bears. “Buck fever” is when out hunting for deer, someone finds a huge buck and ends up blowing the shot because they were too excited to think properly. I got “bear fever” with my camera. I couldn’t take any good shots because my hands were shaking! The bear was literally feet away from me looking at the buggy. Seeing the bear inspired me more to care about the bears and learn more about them and how to help them.

Cassidy: I was so amazed when I saw the polar bears! It was truly a magical experience; I felt so special and privileged to be in the presence of such a magnificent animal. The tundra was so amazing and seeing all the animals on it was even more special. I have never seen anything so incredible in my life, and the extremely cold temperature has been worth it.

Today we left from Winnipeg to Churchill! The flight was so exciting! We were flying through clouds for about and hour and a half. When the clouds finally cleared up Katie, my new friend from Winnipeg, and I were able to see the magnificent sub-arctic chocolate brown tundra with glorious amber flecks. We were all so excited to finally go to Churchill! We took a tour around Churchill and we saw the Churchill River and the rest of the group went to the Hudson River, but I was too cold to go to the Hudson River, so I went back to the Tundra Inn with Katie and we defrosted and waited for everyone else to get back. We ate dinner at the Seaport, which was delicious! I highly recommend the Baked Lasagna.

Today was our first day out of the hotel! All of us are still recovering from jet lag, but we all managed to pull ourselves together so that we could wake up for a yummy breakfast at 7:30. We saw a slideshow of polar bears, rocks, flowers, birds, and landscapes by Robert Taylor, which got all of us fired up to go to Churchill on Sunday (tomorrow). After seeing the slideshow, Robert Buchanan gave us a quick briefing of the effects global warming has on polar bears as well as the rest of the world. After hearing Robert Buchanan speak so passionately about the polar bears, we went on a quick fieldtrip around Winnipeg, which was quite exciting. We went to the zoo and saw three different bear exhibits (the polar bear exhibit being the most depressing because of it’s lack of room for the polar bear). After looking at the bear exhibits we had a discussion about how we feel about animals in captivity if we agree or disagree with an endangered species being in the zoo. We were free to rome the zoo for an hour and check out all the different animals.