We cannot say it enough – we love when we receive images and video from our guests from their adventures with us!
FNA guest Gary Lehman travelled with us in 2006 and sent us two videos that he created of his photographs while up in Churchill viewing polar bears. Great work Gary!
FNA Polar Bears in Churchill guest, Amanda Bunyan, is now a bit of a celebrity in the United Kingdom. She shared with us a photo she took on our adventure that was featured in the March issue of Lonely Planet Magazine. The photo was in an article called ‘Postcards’, where the magazine features reader-captured photographs with a short story about where the image was taken and what’s happening. Amanda and her mother travelled with us this past autumn on our Tundra Buggy Lodge Enthusiast-level adventure.
Great photo Amanda!
To help CBS celebrate Earth Day 2010, we teamed up with The Price is Right to offer one lucky contestant an opportunity to win a trip to Churchill, Manitoba (not quite the Arctic Circle) to experience wild polar bears on a Tundra Buggy Adventure!
Watch Edward from Minnesota exhibit more energy than an atom bomb attempt to solve ‘Pick a Pair’ and join us this autumn!
FNA staff watching Edward win
As we previously blogged, FNA was very pleased to partner with WWF-Canada for the 2010 CN Tower Climb that took place this past weekend in Toronto. We are eagerly awaiting the winners of our donation of a trip for two to Churchill to see the polar bears!
The event was a great success, with a record breaking 6,420 climbers over $1.2 million raised from the Team and the Public Climbs. Here are some images of the event!
All images © WWF-Canada/Ken Mak
Yesterday in Chicago, IL, FNA’s Grant Chem and John Gunter were invited to get a behind-the-scenes look at the Brookfield Zoo’s soon to be open Great Bear Wilderness exhibit.
Built to meet the Manitoba Standards as put forth by Manitoba Conservation and endorsed by Polar Bears International, the new exhibit is quite impressive with three separate grottos, natural substrates, large pool for the bears and underwater viewing for zoo guests, as well as large off-exhibit space to comfortably accommodate the Zoo’s grizzly and polar bears.
Hosting Grant and John were Melissa Farruggia, Campaign Director and Livia McCormick, Woman’s Board Manager. The Brookfield Zoo and Frontiers North are teaming-up on an autumn 2010 Tundra Buggy Adventure in Churchill to experience wild polar bears where we plan to turn the tables; this autumn it’s the people that will be on exhibit for the polar bears, not the other way around!
Melissa Farruggia, Grant Chem, Livia McCormick and John Gunter
John and Grant waiting in the rain for their taxi.
With the success of our partnership with WWF-Canada for Earth Hour, we are extremely pleased to be offering a trip for 2 to see the polar bears of Churchill to the winning contestant of the 20th Annual CN Tower Climb for WWF-Canada in Toronto. The public climb takes place on Saturday, April 17. This is WWF-Canada’s largest fundraising event, with each climber needing to fundraise a minimum of $75 to participate in the event. Every year, thousands of people participate and climb the CN Tower’s 1,776 steps (a total of 144 flights) in approximately 30-40 minutes! We’re out of breath just thinking about that!
Our company goal next year is to have an FNA team take part in this fantastic event. Don’t worry – we are implementing an exercise training strategy ASAP!
Check out the video below of the 2009 CN Tower Climb!
Last weekend, FNA Sales Manager Grant Chem was featured on Kansas City’s KCMO 710 Talk Radio’s travel show hosted by Mark Comfort of Cruise Holidays. We are currently working with Mark on promoting our Polar Bears in Churchill Tundra Buggy Lodge-based adventures in Kansas City in conjunction with the Kansas City Zoo and the opening of their new polar bear exhibit.
Click here to listen to Grant’s radio debut (fast forward to the 15:40 mark!)
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Although we currently don’t have any images that depict our love for this festive day, we figured we would post some more polar bear favourites that were captured by Dave Allcorn this past Autumn both near our Tundra Buggy Lodge and on our Legendary Cape Churchill adventure. As you may recall, we posted some of his beautiful summer images last Friday on our blog.
Enjoy!
All images © Dave Allcorn
Most people know Churchill for its amazing polar bear viewing and Tundra Buggy adventures in October and November. But what a lot of people don’t know is that in July and August not only are there 3,000 beluga whales in the Churchill River, but there is still an opportunity to see polar bears on our summer Tundra Buggy adventures – just not in the numbers that you would see in autumn. Pair all this with witnessing brilliant colours of flora on the tundra, unique birding and wildlife viewing, Churchill is a very inspiring place to be in the summer months.
Take a look at some images that our summer Tundra Buggy Driver and Tundra Buggy Lodge Maintenance guru, Dave Allcorn, took during his summer months in Churchill in 2009:
All images © Dave Allcorn
According to recent studies, more grizzly bears are moving into the northern regions of Canada, with some even spotted in Wapusk National Park. In fact, a total of 9 grizzlies have been spotted in the past 14 years, with 4 spotted this summer alone. It still remains somewhat of a mystery as to why these grizzly bears are so far from their typical habitats, but experts figure it is more likely due to reduced hunting pressures than global warming.
The scientific community isn’t worrying too much about the fact that there will be an increase in grizzly-polar bear conflicts because if the trend in loss of ice and habitat for the northeastern corner of Manitoba continues, polar bears will not frequent Wapusk National Park in the future. This is because the polar bear population will follow Arctic sea ice as it retreats farther north and away from the region. This was further communicated by PBI Species Expert Andy Derochers in an article published by National Geographic.
Polar Bears International’s website has a great video illustration of the sea ice loss and temperature trends of the Arctic on their website. Click on the image below to see the video on their website.
