THE ICE IS CALLING: A CLIMATE CHANGE DISPATCH

On Hudson Bay’s frigid shores, scientists track the animals to better understand how the environment is shaping their chances of survival

On the bay this fall morning, there’s a wind-carved rim of ice and a gathering of floes. One male polar bear, bony after a season without seal blubber, struggles along the slushy edge, haunches soaked, nearly slipping into the sea.

We are on Gordon Point, in northern Manitoba, where Hudson Bay widens into its northwest crescent. Polar winds make it colder than at comparable latitudes, and the shallow waters of the bay freeze early. Having passed the summer months in the subarctic wild of Wapusk National Park to the south, polar bears now congregate here, waiting for the ice to come in.

Read the full story by Neil Ever Osborne and M.A. Jacquemain here.

Keywords: Arctic; Canada; climate change; climate crisis; polar bears; subarctic; sea ice