Sunday, March 11, 2012

Polar Bear Safari Conclusion

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I got home last night and have my polar bear gallery up on my wildlife photography website.  While on safari in Wapusk National Park, we visited a den on Fletcher lake that was about 30 minutes from the lodge. For the last three or four days that I was there we would see fresh tracks every morning. The mother polar bear would come out of her den and go for a walk, then go back in. She just wasn't ready to come out yet. We kidded that the mother polar bear must have triplets in that den and guessed that she likely wasn't coming out because her babies were just too small yet to make the journey. Some days twenty nature and wildlife photographers would wait 100 meters away from that den for anywhere from a couple hours to a full day depending upon what the trackers found in other areas.

On my last day she graced us with her presence. She came out about half way, looked at us a bit, then went back down again and that was the last that we saw of her.

I emailed a friend to enquire about the den. He said she came out tonight and sure enough, she had triplets following her. They came out wandered around a bit right at sunset, then went back into the den. Looks like they aren't ready for the journey to Hudson Bay yet. I suppose they are just getting a little exercise. I think they are in baby polar bear training. :)

On our second last night there was a natural phenomenon that is quite rare. Some kind of solar flare was supposed to create amazing northern lights. The lights did come out briefly but unfortunately we had a full moon, so their brilliance was short lived.

I don't do a lot of landscape photography, but I do take the odd shot of pretty sunrises and sunsets. I have a few pictures of the aurora borealis and some arctic sunsets from the trip on my website. That landscape page has pictures from other safaris as well. Just scroll through. The arctic pictures are at the end.

If you are on Facebook I also put several pictures up on that page as well. They can be found here.
Well, unless I get some more updates from the triplets that is it for now. Thanks for following my safari posts. My next safaris will be mule deer fawns in July, then Kenya and South Africa in August.

Two weeks later...
I emailed my friend again after I got home. He said the polar bear mom and triplets came out and the wildlife photographers photographed them for three days straight. Now, that is lucky! What isn't lucky is after she left, they never saw another bear for the last week of the season....And that's nature and wild life photography for you. You just never know what you are going to get.



2 comments:

  1. Enjoyed reading your blog and very nice images. It was also nice meeting you. I was with David's group.
    Christine

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    Replies
    1. Hi Christine,
      Thanks for following up.
      Send me your email address. You have my info right? Keep in touch.

      Greg

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