Mammals: Recent Episodes
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Antarctic Peninsula from Astrolabe Island The seal has not been out drinking. His seemingly bloodshot eyes are not the result of excess. Like us, all seals must hold their breath when they dive. Because they dive so much deeper and longer than us, they have to supersaturate their blood with oxygen and it is that […]
Prairie dogs are to the prairie what krill is to the ocean. Without them, that sea of grass is a dead zone. Mark Seth Lender visited a prairie dog colony in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. What impressed him the most was not their value, but their bravery: Hero Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs, Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan […]
Bear on Ice (C) 2013 Mark Seth Lender All Rights Reserved There is a polar bear swimming through the slush at the edge of the floe. This year’s ice and last year’s ice and the porous remnant of a berg. All that melt, dispersed, makes the sea air cold. The bear, only head and face […]
Swimming with Beluga Whales, Hudson Bay [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLo-f1pXmwA 580 380] How “Swimming with Beluga Whales” was made I was staying at The Seal River Lodge and had the opportunity to go out in one of their pontoon boats to swim with Belugas. Beluga Whales, tolerant as they are of arctic water, will congregate at […]
Sled Dogs, Hudson Bay Sled Dogs A thousand years of dogs: Running pressure ridge and ice ridge, skirting every crevice, loping frozen tundra through permanent day and the long months of near dark. They are a special breed. Their sense of snow; their sense of smell; long hours without shelter in wind that freezes human […]
Day 2: Churchill, Canada The bear perambulates the perimeter with a mild curiosity, looking occasionally, vaguely, towards where I stand. He lies down like a big white dog. Gets up. Sits down in the grass. Turns and yawns… As if there is no one there. Certainly, he knows exactly where I am. And yet, […]