Scarbrow. Kind eyes. Nolan Plew photo.
Father’s Day is about strength, endurance, and looking out for your own. With male polar bears, the first two attributes are critical, and we see those qualities every season in the big male polar bears near our ecolodges on the Hudson Bay coast. The old veterans most of all. Our guests know some of them by name.
There is Scarbrow. He has been coming back to Dymond Lake Ecolodge for more than 15 years, and has also visited Seal River Heritage Lodge on occasion. His scarred face is the record of a long, hard life. There was also the late Warrior Pete at Seal River Heritage Lodge, a battle-worn old male whose final walk we were privileged to witness. Bears like these have passed their genes to generations of cubs now wandering the same coast our guests walk on polar bear tours and safaris from July through November.
Warrior Pete. Ruler for decades. Seal River Heritage Lodge. Jenny Loren photo. Click image for full story.
An Honest Kind of Fatherhood
We should be honest about what polar bear fatherhood is. The truth makes a better story.
Male polar bears live alone and play no part in raising their cubs. After mating season they go back to wandering. They live off their fat through the ice-free summer, then return to the frozen bay to hunt seals from freeze-up until breakup in late June or early July. The mothers do the rest. All of it. We rightly had more to say about them on Mother’s Day.
So a polar bear dad is not a nurturer. He is a survivor. There is something in that worth honouring too. Some fathers show their love by enduring. By showing up. By carrying a heavy load a long way without complaint. Not every father parents the same way. Some just hold the line.
Patient polar bear hunting beluga whales. Seal River Heritage Lodge. Quent Plett photo.
Built for the Long Haul
Everything about a male polar bear is built to last. Mating peaks in March and April, and the competition for females is hard. The playful sparring our guests watch along the coast in summer and fall is practice for fights that are not playful at all. The biggest and most experienced males win, and their genes carry forward.
The rest of the year is a test of patience. These apex predators hunt seals with stealth and strength. Over the past sixteen years we have even documented polar bears hunting beluga whales during the summer at Seal River Heritage Lodge. The bears are adapting to shorter ice seasons in real time. Survival on this coast is full-time work, and the grizzled veterans are the ones who have done it well enough to grow old.
Scarbrow (left) sparring with a younger bear at Dymond Lake Ecolodge. Robert Postma photo.
To the Old Guys of the Coast
There is a certain feeling among our guests and guides when a familiar old male turns up for another season. Scarbrow ambles back into view, a little more weathered, still himself. It is the feeling of seeing someone you were quietly hoping would make it through another year. Relief. Respect. The recognition of a tough old friend who keeps going.
That is the spirit we are after this Father’s Day. Here is to the survivors. The steady ones. The ones who carry the weight and keep walking, bear and human alike.
Happy Father’s Day.
