Wapusk National Park

National Park Of About 11,475 Square Kilometres On The Hudson Bay Lowlands South Of Churchill; One Of The Largest Known Polar Bear Maternity Denning Areas In The World, On Continuous Permafrost And Peatland · Churchill, Manitoba

Wapusk is the Cree word for white bear, and the park protects ONE OF THE LARGEST KNOWN POLAR BEAR MATERNITY DENNING AREAS IN THE WORLD. Pregnant females come ashore in the autumn, dig dens into the peat banks and snowdrifts of the Hudson Bay lowlands, give birth in midwinter and emerge with cubs in late February and March - and the concentration of those dens here is why the park exists. It covers about eleven thousand four hundred and seventy-five square kilometres of continuous permafrost, peatland and stunted spruce south of Churchill, a landscape that is neither forest nor tundra but a wet transitional peatland almost nobody sets foot on. THERE ARE NO ROADS, NO TRAILS AND NO FACILITIES, and GENERAL ACCESS IS NOT PERMITTED - visiting means a licensed operator, a helicopter or tundra vehicle, and a permit. Most people who see Wapusk see it from the air or from the edge, and Churchill itself is where the bear viewing actually happens.

Hudson Bay coast south of Churchill, northern Manitoba, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

THIS IS NOT A PARK YOU CAN SIMPLY VISIT. THERE IS NO GENERAL PUBLIC ACCESS: entry requires a PARKS CANADA PERMIT and is effectively limited to trips run by LICENSED OPERATORS, with access by helicopter or tundra vehicle from Churchill. THE DEN EMERGENCE SEASON IS LATE FEBRUARY AND MARCH and the small number of den-viewing operations run then, at very high cost and in extreme cold. A SUMMER SEASON EXISTS for other wildlife and for the Cape Churchill area. MOST VISITORS TO THE REGION NEVER ENTER THE PARK AT ALL - the famous Churchill polar bear viewing in October and November happens on the Churchill Wildlife Management Area next door, not inside Wapusk, and that distinction confuses a great many people. Churchill is reached by rail from Winnipeg or by air; there is no road.

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