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Trip Report

As the group piled into the Tundra Buggy, the anticipation was tangible as the buggy bounced along the trail leaving the last vestiges of civilization behind. Our luggage stacked neatly in the aisle as we headed towards our first night on the lodge, the tone was hushed as people drank in the spectacular tundra sunset and began to unwind from their tense lives. Mother Nature flung pinks, golds, and purples across the endless unblemished skyline. We saw our first bears by twilight that night, the sun giving their fur an angelic aura and setting their breath aglow in the crisp fall air. If darkness hadn’t hampered the bear watching, we might have never reached the lodge that night. As a fierce north wind rocked us to sleep in our bunks, we dreamed of the bears that romped just outside in the driven snow.

The next four days on the tundra were packed with some of the most fascinating bear behaviours I have ever witnessed. The cold weather had all the creatures (both four and two legged) excited. You couldn’t look in any direction without spotting sparring bears and we were able to compare and contrast the sparring techniques of two shoving, swiping adolescent males with the rolling, nibbling antics of two adolescent females who weren’t content to let the boys have all the fun.

We spent some time watching the Polar Bear Cam buggy play peek-a-boo with a curious sub-adult male, and we laughed as a raven continually tormented our intrepid webcam operator by jiggling and pecking at the camera. Perhaps the most exceptional display we witnessed was a mother and her two two year-old male cubs who seemed not to have heard that they’re supposed to be leery of large adult males. We watched in amazement as the mother, flanked by her two strapping sons, charged a fully-grown male in perfect step. Like a 12-legged freight train, they railroaded him out of the vicinity. He paused only once to look over his shoulder in either fear or befuddlement before he disappeared.

Besides excellent bear viewing, the trip offered a diversity of wildlife. We spent some time with ptarmigan wandering among the willows, several arctic hare, and a few enterprising (and entertaining) arctic foxes. On the final day, our Buggy driver took us to the forest’s edge and we saw a red fox, and caribou and marten tracks, reminding us that the wildlife management area is a special kind of place where anything can happen. Situated on the cusp of several ecosystems, each with unique flora and fauna, the Tundra Buggy Lodge had given us a front row seat to a surreal and unforgettable show.