Arctic: Successful Outreach Program

We motored out from the Lodge to do our last two webcasts. The same mother and cub we saw yesterday were eating kelp in the snow at the edge of the sea-ice. They eat that junk-food to fill their bellies, but it is not even remotely a substitute for seal blubber. After a time, they trotted out onto the sea-ice to begin hunting.
We finished up our program of outreach with Polar Bears International, and after having lunch in the buggy we headed along the buggy path to Watson Point, which we had not visited before. All the tourist buggies were gathered around a huge male, who was lying in the snow and vegetation. A film crew was ecstatically moving their boom around to get footage of the sleepy bear, but it only raised its head occasionally. After seeing the two males sparring, the seal-kill, and the oh-so-cute cub, a sleeping bear was a mellow way to end our time on the tundra. We headed back to the Launch at 3:00 PM, unloaded Tundra Buggy One, and rode by truck back into town.
-Rich

Mother and cub eating kelp.