Wolf in fall colours at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Christoph Jansen / ArcticWild.net photo.
by George Williams
(With files from Jad Davenport)
Churchill Wild has been seeing wolves at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge ever since they bought the property in 2009. It’s about time the wolves had their own photo album! You’ll find it at the bottom of this post.
The Wolf Album includes photos from all the different polar bear tours and wolf safaris that take place at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge in summer, fall and winter. These include Cloud Wolves of the Kaska Coast and Nanuk Emergence Quest, Arctic Discovery, Hudson Bay Odyssey, the Polar Bear Photo Safari at Nanuk, Summer Dual Lodge Safari and Fall Dual Lodge Safari.
Wolf pack playing at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Ellen Zangla photo.
Guests on the Cloud Wolves of the Kaska Coast safari and Nanuk Emergence Quest this spring had some incredible close-up encounters with the resident wolf pack and we’re hoping to see these wolves back at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge this summer and fall with a new litter of pups.
We’ll add more photos to The Wolf Album as they come in from guest, staff and photographers during the summer.
The wolves ranging along the Kaska Coast where Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge is located are gray wolves belonging to the southern gray wolf subspecies (C. l. nubilus). Nubilus is Latin for “cloudy,” a nod at the beautiful shades of the wolves’ coats from coal-black to snow-white and everything in between.
Similar to the wolves of North Knife Lake Lodge, these wolves fall under the “boreal forest wolf” ecotype, tending to range within fixed territories (rather than follow the caribou migrations). The wolves at Seal River Heritage Lodge, Dymond Lake Ecolodge and the Churchill Wild Tundra Camp belong to the “tundra/taiga” wolf ecotype.
Cloud wolf at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Fabienne Jansen / ArcticWild.net photo.
The wolves at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge are larger than those found in places like Yellowstone, and not surprisingly, they prey almost exclusively on big game: moose and caribou.
And during the spring when female polar bears are leading their newborn cubs from the forest dens to the sea ice, wolves will harass and hunt them. This is unusual behavior not noted in other wolf populations.
A walk along the river at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Mary Niccolini photo.
The best information we have about the natural history, biology and behavior of these wolves comes from the traditional knowledge of York Factory and York Landing Cree. From this knowledge and local observations, it appears there are two wolf packs in the immediate area of Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. According to guide Albert Saunders, Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge sits at a border between two wolf pack territories, what biologists call a “buffer.”
Because these wolves have exclusive territories which they regularly patrol and mark and defend, they frequently use geographic features like rivers — such as the nearby Mistikokan — as territorial boundaries.
Churchill Wild co-owner and founder Mike Reimer has seen packs with as many as 14 individuals at Nanuk. The resident wolf pack around Nanuk tends to have lighter coats with gray and tawny brown fur, while the pack further west has darker, sometimes all-black, coats.
Mike believes there may be as many as 10 packs that have territories along the Kaska Coast and they have a vast uninhabited wilderness to roam through that includes Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge.
Wolf and polar bear at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge.
Located 230 km southeast of Churchill in the heart of the Kaskatamagan Wildlife Management Area between the York Factory National Historic Site at the mouth of the Hayes River to the west, and the Ontario border 200 km to the east, Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge is remote from any permanent settlement. Apart from Churchill, the nearest communities are Fort Severn, 247 km further east in Ontario, and to the southwest, Shamattawa (142 km), and Sundance, (165 km).
The area encompassed within these points is 110,000 km² (even larger if winter sea ice is included), 11 times the size of Yellowstone National Park and nearly twice the size of Switzerland, but two of the packs have decided to make the area around Nanuk their home.
The Kaska Coast is an uninhabited sweep of coastal tundra and sand dunes that mantles the Hudson Bay Lowlands. The coastline is unusual in that it acts as a de facto frontier between the sub-Arctic and Arctic. The lodge itself is tucked among the spruce and willow forests of the sub-Arctic, but walk a couple hundred metres to the north and you’re on the wide-open tundra and the endless sea ice of the Arctic.
Meeting on the beach. Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Anne Bastien photo.
In addition to being one of the largest polar bear denning areas in the world, and home to wolves, moose, and black bears, the area is also a critical wetland habitat for migrating birds and important habitat to the Pen Islands Caribou Herd. The caribou are unique, a possible subspecies (Caribou tarandus caribou) between the barren-ground and woodland caribou.
The wolves in this area have little fear of humans, likely because they have had no hunting or trapping pressure since the 1950s when York Factory closed. This lack of fear, combined with years of regular encounters with workers, guides and guests, has reinforced that humans are not a threat.
Wolves and guests on the runway at Nanuk. Steve Pressman photo.
“During all the Nanuk Emergence Quests I’ve been on we have observed, approached and photographed multiple wolves right around the lodge and within a few miles of the lodge,” said National Geographic photojournalist and Churchill Wild Director of Wolf Programs Jad Davenport. “In fact, some of the best wolf photography uses the lodge itself as a comfortable blind with great views of the surrounding ponds and the runway.
“One of my most memorable wolf encounters at Nanuk was when I went alone to the wood pile behind the lodge and waited for the inbound pack as they made their regular investigatory laps around the lodge.
“Surprised to see me on a snowbank, five wolves approached within several feet, exhibiting such intense curiosity that I wasn’t able to photograph them with my 400mm telephoto lens, they were too close. I broke off the encounter when one got to within two metres of me and seemed keenly interested in my fur-lined hood.
Close encounter at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Jad Davenport photo.
“I’ve photographed wolves in Yellowstone, Denali and the Yukon, but the encounters there are distant, and you’re usually shoulder-to-shoulder with dozens and dozens of other people; it doesn’t feel wild.
“At Nanuk it’s just you and your fellow guests watching as the wolves hunt, play, court and, of course, howl, often right in front of the lodge. It’s the only place I’ve ever had wolves approach me when I was on foot and get to within a few metres; I had to shoot photos with a wide-angle lens. That never happens anywhere else.
“And of course there’s the lodge itself. There’s nothing like coming back from a hike to a roaring fire in the great room, dinner of cranberry glazed turkey and a bottle of merlot, and enjoying a hot water shower back in your room.
“There’s no place like Nanuk in all the Arctic.”
She just wanted to say goodbye. Jad Davenport photo.
