© Tim Auer/Polar Bears International

11/13/2018 4:09:55 PM

Polar Bear Season: Week Four

By Tara Kramer, Operations Manager 

As we wrapped up this year’s Polar Bear Week, temperatures plunged near Churchill and wind and snow swept the tundra. When freeze-up finally comes, the Western Hudson Bay polar bears will return to hunting seals after months of fasting on shore.

Last week, we reached classrooms around through our Tundra Connections webcasts. Kyle Schutt of with Discovery Education joined Polar Bears International staff members Alysa McCall and Steven Amstrup to talk about polar bear basics. If you missed them live, you can watch the archives here (Grades K-3) and here (Grades 4+).

Here’s what we have planned for this week:

• Our live Polar Bear Cams will continue, even as bears begin to move onto the ice forming near shore.
• Scientist Andrew Derocher of the University of Alberta will join us for the final Tundra Connections webcast of the season: Polar Bear Protectors, Gr 8+, on Tuesday, Nov. 13th, 11:30 a.m. at Central Time. To join us, register and watch here.
• We’ve also scheduled a live chat on Tuesday, Nov. 13th, 2:30 p.m. Central Time: Narlugas, Bowrights, and Grolars, Oh My! with special guest Mike You can watch it here.
• Alysa McCall, host of our Tundra Connections webcasts, shares her 10 favorite facts about polar bears in a Polar Bear Week blog post. Among her picks? Their massive, sticky, furry feet.
• Finally, students in Spain who are taking part in carbon-reduction efforts created a fun and inspiring music video about polar bears, We Will Help You, that we’ve shared on our YouTube page.

See you on the tundra!

Prior to joining the staff of Polar Bears International, Tara spent nearly a decade working in field operations for the U.S. Polar Programs at remote research sites in Greenland and Antarctica. She studied writing at the University of Iowa and has a reverence for the vast polar ecosystems.