Read the full story of Zac Unger’s research on the plight of polar bears in Manitoba.
Each fall, Churchill, Manitoba, is overrun with polar bears waiting for the ice to form on Hudson Bay. (PHOTO: Travel Manitoba)
Come the November freeze-up, the bears head out and disappear. (PHOTO: Travel Manitoba)
For six weeks in autumn, this little town of 900 people becomes a world-class ecotourism destination, as 10,000 visitors descend on the slightly shell-shocked local populace. (PHOTO: Travel Manitoba)
(PHOTO: Travel Manitoba)
So cute; how could you not build a marketing campaign around them? (PHOTO: Travel Manitoba)
Author Zac Unger (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
Unger took a leave of absence from his job, pulled his kids out of school, and moved the entire family to the edge of the Canadian Arctic to report on the plight of polar bears. (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
A “Churchill welcome mat” (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
Nestor Two, base camp for biologists Robert “Rocky” Rockwell and Linda Gormezano in northern Manitoba (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
Did somebody say something about food scarcity? The kitchen area at Nestor Two. (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
Kitchen and dining room, Nestor Two (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
The bunkroom at Nestor Two (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
Quinoa at rest, in flight. (PHOTO: Zac Unger)
Rockwell and Gormezano prepare a fish dinner at Nestor Two. (PHOTO: Zac Unger)