Adventure Travel: Manitoba’s “big five

ADVENTURE TRAVEL On the photo hunt for Manitoba’s “big five”

RIDING MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK AND CHURCHILL ARE WILDLIFE HAVENS

By Katharine Fletcher

My heart was racing, with white knuckles gripping my paddle. About 100 white whales had encircled our group’s kayaks. They were diving, surfacing, exhaling big bursts of moisture-laden breath, sucking in air, then diving again.

Watching this beluga ballet, it slowly dawned on me that there was no danger; they were curious.

Suddenly one broke away, a white streak in the cobalt blue waters of the Churchill River estuary, heading straight at me. At the last minute it turned, twisted its head, and regarded me with its cheerful cetacean “smile.” I bent over, and for an unforgettable moment we gazed at one another. Then it dove beneath my kayak, giving it a playful bump before rejoining its pod. In a few minutes, they were gone.

While the Frontiers North Adventures company cannot promise magical encounters on its “big five safari,” when Mother Nature rules, you never know what will happen.

And that’s what was so rewarding about this eight-day August adventure. Frontiers North paired two of Manitoba’s vastly different habitats, giving participants a chance to see five of Manitoba’s most spectacular mammals – moose, black bear, polar bear, bison and beluga whales.

Guests first fly to Winnipeg to mingle, enjoy dinner, and spend the night. Next morning it’s off to Riding Mountain National Park, 268 kilometres west of “the Peg” for black bear, plains bison, and moose. On day four we flew to Churchill, home to polar bears and belugas. I loved this trip for its informed guiding and the opportunities to see wildlife in their eco-niches. Here’s what I found in both areas.

RIDING MOUNTAIN

This national park is where fescue prairie grasslands, boreal forest and aspen parklands come together. Wolves, coyotes, fox, lynx, beaver, elk, deer and more join the big mammals the tour company hopes people see.

Though we traveled in a shuttle bus looking for critters, there were many opportunities to hike. The first misty morning, with boots on the ground we photographed monarda, harebell, fireweed and yarrow wildflowers – along with ladybugs bejewelled with dewdrops.

Back in the bus, down the road, a cluster of vehicles on the highway signalled a bull

moose. As luck would have it, we missed the spectacle of this one sparring with another male but it was a good sighting. As always, this seemingly ungainly animal mystified me. How can it possibly pass between tree trunks with a two-metre rack of antlers? While I pon- dered, as if to mock me it turned, effortlessly disappearing into the forest, antlers and all.

With a nice adrenaline rush, we scanned for black bear as we approached Lake Audy plains bison enclosure, where Parks Canada manages 30 or so of them. You might think they’d be easy to spot in a “pen,” but no, they often elude visitors. But the gods smiled upon us and the herd wandered out of the aspen woods to mill about in front of our bus, so we could (had to!) stop, look, learn and take photos. Mums nursed calves, bulls warily eyed one another, and one mounted a female, giving us an unexpected up-close-and-person- al view of mating.

At the visitor centre, a Parks Canada interpreter told us about pre-European

Polar bear glimpsed from the safety of Frontiers North Adventure's Tundra Buggy. Phot by Eric Fletcher

contact times when an estimated 50 million bison roamed North America. Their hooves shook the earth and left vast swathes of prairie churned up… good for aeration of grassland soils, I’d guess. First Nations peoples worshipped them as powerful spirits,

because they depended upon them for food, shelter, tools, clothing and trade. Tragically, European firearms brought them to the brink of extinction. This Lake Audy herd is a living reminder of the importance of balance in fragile ecosystems.

CHURCHILL

Riding Mountain had whetted our appetite for white bears and whales. Calm Air flew us 1,500 kilometres from Winnipeg to the shores of Hudson Bay, along the way giving us great, sunny views of Lake Winnipeg, boreal forest and tundra.

Upon arrival in Churchill, we got the polar bear drill. We were unequivocally informed that “going solo” wasn’t permitted on beaches or tundra. In town, emboldened bruins wander about and end up in polar bear jail, to be subsequently released “elsewhere.” If a bear’s patrolling the ’hood, the RCMP head out in search of people on Churchill’s streets in a bizarre counterpoint to wildlife watching. Our group was out photographing Aurora Borealis one night and the RCMP pulled up, told us to get into our cars and go to our hotel, immediately, as a bear was in town. We did.

Polar bears are the largest bear on Earth. Aboard the Frontiers North tundra buggy (think a large van on steroids), we spied one swimming to a beach, emerging and shaking itself like a dog. It was a sobering symbol of raw power. They were also patrolling or snoozing on the rocky shore, swimming, and out on the tundra. Guide Paul Ratson showed us how his home is girded with bear-proofing equipment. Electric wires wrapped his house, ready to give a bruin a jolt. Bear “mats” – metal rugs of spikes – lie outside windows and doors.

And they’re likely the world’s largest garden pest, Ratson explained. “We have a greenhouse here, but composting isn’t an option: Bears eat it.”

So in Churchill and environs, guides like Ratson carry rifles and use them if necessary. Happily, our expeditions remained photosafaris with such safety measures as just part of the setting.

To get to nearby Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site (and its massive ruins from fur trade days) we boarded a Transport Canada tour boat and plied the Churchill River estuary, where I saw a “large blond boulder” morph into a real polar bear on the shore. Nature was showing me very precisely why solo hiking is not permitted. Not even the locals do it unless they have guns.

Frontiers North’s Big Five Safari is a buck- et-list hit, offering up some of Canada’s most intriguing ecosystems and wildlife. Worth the long flight north. 