Paying Your Dues at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge

by Christoph and Fabienne Jansen / ArcticWild.net

There are destinations where you can time animal encounters almost down to the minute. Like a vending machine, where you insert a coin and the soda pops out. If you are looking for this kind of instant gratification, the Arctic might not be the ideal destination for you. Here, the animals are truly wild, and their territories are vast. This makes encounters even more precious and rewarding.

When flying to Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge, you will notice how big this area really is. The closest permanent settlement is more than 200 kilometers away. You know that you are privileged to experience this remote wilderness area. But at the same time, you start to understand that you will have to put time and energy into finding wildlife and making these rare encounters happen. “Paying your dues,” as guide Boomer Jerritt puts it.

We spent five weeks at Nanuk in February/March 2026. We were out in the field every single day. While we had some animal encounters on each of our many excursions along the coast and up the frozen rivers, there were a few that really surprised and touched us.

A group of bull moose was peacefully munching on willows, but the surprising part was not them chewing on willows. They need 40 pounds of willows a day to make it through the winter. The surprise was how peaceful and relaxed they were. Male moose will fight violently during the rut in the fall, but once their hormones are in balance again, they act like best buddies and like to hang out together.

Where there are moose, there are often also wolves. Although they were a bit more elusive than usual, we frequently saw a lone wolf. We also had some encounters with one of the local wolf packs. While we didn’t see the actual hunt, we found very obvious tracks up the Opoyastin Creek.

There were tracks of several wolves chasing a moose. But despite the moose tracks having some blood in them, this encounter had a happy ending for the moose. The moose tracks ventured off the river while the wolf tracks continued upstream.

There was an abundance of red foxes along the coast. They seemed to be everywhere. Some were mousing, or rather diving nose-first into the snow chasing lemmings. Others were chasing each other. And one pair was putting on a veritable fox fight.

Foxes are not the only animals preying on lemmings. The same is true for snowy owls, which we encountered frequently. While it’s hard to identify individual animals visually, their behavior can sometimes help. We had one owl that wasn’t bothered by our presence at all. It was usually sitting on top of a tree close to the Mistasini River.

And even when we were driving or walking past its tree, it was just staying put, sometimes not even looking at us. But it also presented us with some great photo opportunities when it eventually decided to fly off.

Ptarmigans are another species of willow eaters. They live in large flocks and are often hard to spot, as they are completely white in winter. They are very chatty and sometimes you can hear them before you actually see them.

Their fluffy feet protect them from the cold and allow them to walk on top of even soft snow. Another member of the grouse family is the sharp-tailed grouse. They are usually sitting in the trees, and that’s where their camouflage works best.

This season, we even encountered one of the most elusive animals this region has to offer: a wolverine. These fearless animals will even pick a fight with a polar bear. But they are still cautious and try to avoid humans. If there were a ranking of elusive animals, wolverines would probably be close to the top.

But the one-of-a-kind experiences don’t stop with wildlife encounters. Sometimes, the landscape is the star of the show. Arctic sunsets last forever and are just gorgeous. And sometimes, well after dark, the sky lights up again when the northern lights are dancing.

All these wonderful moments are the reason we keep coming back to the coast of Hudson Bay over and over. But all these encounters wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of the amazing staff of Churchill Wild.

The guides are up long before sunrise and tirelessly put in even more hours in the field than we do as guests. And the team at the lodge is flexible to the extent that they will just hop on a snowmobile to bring lunch out to us when we’re having a great wildlife encounter.

Thank you very much!

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About Christoph and Fabienne Jansen / ArcticWild.net

Christoph and Fabienne Jansen have been on over 40 departures with Churchill Wild. The Swiss couple especially loves returning to Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge every year for safaris that include Cloud Wolves of the Kaska Coast, Nanuk Emergence Quest and the Polar Bear Photo Safari. “It just felt like coming home… like a magical place…”

See more of Christoph and Fabienne’s photos at ArcticWild.net
Follow Christoph and Fabienne on Instagram @arcticwildphotography
Watch Jad Davenport‘s interview with Christoph and Fabienne

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