Hudson Bay, a hungry polar bear

Churchill, China News Service, November 19 Title: Hudson Bay, which has been frozen for a long time, is a hungry polar bear

China News Service reporter Yu Ruidong

Although it is nearly late November, in the Canadian town of Churchill, Manitoba, located in the Arctic region, the water surface along the Hudson Bay coast is still not frozen.

This means that the approximately 1,000 polar bears living here must continue to endure hunger and wait to tread the ice north to forage for food.

Warm winters are a reflection of climate change. Born in Churchill and now a grandmother, Patricia told China News Agency that she remembered that the lowest temperature in winter here used to reach minus 50 degrees Celsius, and now it is only about minus 30 degrees Celsius.

The town of Churchill, with a permanent population of just a few hundred, has the label of "Polar Bear Capital of the World". Every summer, when the sea ice melts, polar bears land here to recuperate in the tundra of The Walpsk National Park adjacent to Churchill, making it one of the largest polar bear-producing areas in the world.

Most polar bears spend about a four-month "fasting period" here, subsisting on the consumption of their own fat, supplementing them with tundra berries and rhizomes, and returning to the Arctic Circle to hunt seals when the bay freezes in early to mid-November. Pregnant female bears even need to "fast" for 8 months.

As a result, early November is the most common season for polar bears. Explorers and tourists from all over the world flock here. Polar bears make tourism the backbone of Churchill Town's economy. People ride in special tundra cars with huge tires, enter the polar bear habitat area, and "meet" the bear with excitement.

Polar bears that waddle between rocks, forage, rest or occasionally fight on the ice, in the low forest, seem to have become accustomed to humans and their means of transport, and have even lost interest. But their lives are not leisurely, but in a crisis that is difficult to reverse.

Sea ice freezes later and melts earlier, leaving polar bears with longer fasting times and shorter hunting periods to the north. This makes it impossible for polar bears to store enough fat for summer, and reduces fertility for females.

In the exhibition hall of the International Association of Polar Bears in Churchill Town, a set of data shows that in the 1980s, the average fasting period for polar bears was about 107 days; between 2005 and 2015, this time was extended to 130 days. In mid-November, they have been waiting for more than 150 days. Once fasted for 180 days, 21 percent of adult males and 63 percent of sub-adult polar bears starve to death.

Cassandra, a staff member of the association, said that climate changes and fluctuations are extremely challenging for sub-adult bears, and have also led to a continuous decline in the population of bears.

International environmental groups estimate that there are currently about 26,000 polar bears in the world, which are vulnerable species. From 1987 to 2016, polar bear populations fell by 30 percent in the western Hudson Bay, where Churchill is located, according to research data from official Canadian scholars.

While the sea freezes, the odds of polar bears breaking into the town of Churchill also increase. The townspeople would kindly warn outsiders to be careful, as they were extremely hungry at this time.

As Churchill's only pair of immigrants from Chinese mainland, Meng Xing and her husband Liu Yang, who have lived here for more than 4 years and run a homestay and tourism business, have seen the impact of climate change.

They say the number of polar bears seen at Churchill is decreasing. Summers in recent years have also come "suddenly". Rapidly rising temperatures have led to rapid melting of sea ice, preventing many polar bears from returning to land in time. Sudden fluctuations in sea temperature also make it difficult for juvenile beluga whales to adapt, and survival rates decline. At the same time, red foxes, which were supposed to live in relatively warm areas, appeared more and more frequently in Churchill, threatening the survival of the local Arctic foxes.

In the spring of 2017, rare floods swept through Churchill. The only form of ground transportation here, the railway, was interrupted for about 18 months. Port Churchill remains largely stagnant. In recent years, the population here is being lost. The "Polar Bear Capital" is facing the pressure of economic transformation and development.

According to a museum in Churchill, it was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago, and the movement of the Earth's crust caused earth-shaking displacement. Patricia, a resident, said she had witnessed climate change and its effects in the Arctic-based town.

In Canada, Churchill is not the only case of climate change. British Columbia, on the Pacific coast, was recently hit by rare flooding and geological disasters caused by the phenomenon of "atmospheric rivers," forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

A staff member at the National Parks Canada Visitor Centre said the impact of global warming on the tundra and polar bear habitat could be catastrophic. Polar bears can't protect themselves from the threat of climate change, she said, and only human action can make a difference. (End)

Source: China News Network