Polar Bears and Conservation in Focus
Frontiers North Adventures and Polar Bears International mark 25 years of collaboration
On the shores of Hudson Bay, where the subarctic tundra stretches towards a horizon that seems to belong to another world, Churchill has long earned its informal title as the Polar Bear Capital of the World. Each autumn, the great white bears gather along the coast, waiting for the bay to freeze so they can return to the sea ice and hunt seals. This is the polar bear season - although bears can also be seen on land in summer, it is the weeks before freeze-up that draw travellers and researchers to Churchill in the greatest numbers, and form the backdrop for a quiet alliance that has been shaping responsible wildlife encounters here for a quarter of a century.
In 2026, Frontiers North Adventures and Polar Bears International celebrate 25 years of collaboration. Since 2001, the Manitoba-based tour operator has been a Platinum sponsor of Polar Bears International, the world's only organisation solely dedicated to the conservation of polar bears and the protection of their sea ice habitat. The roots reach back even further: in 1992, a group of passionate photographers sat together on a Tundra Buggy® in Churchill, inspired by the bears they had encountered, and founded a non-profit organisation originally called Polar Bears Alive. Decades on, that small initiative has grown into a leading global voice for polar bear conservation - still firmly rooted on the very tundra where it began.
Frontiers North Adventures itself has been part of Churchill's story even longer. A family-owned, 100 per cent Canadian and Certified B Corporation™ founded in 1987, the tour operator specialises in responsible wildlife travel in Canada's North. Its purpose-built Tundra Buggies - high-clearance vehicles designed to move safely through the polar bear's habitat without disturbing it - are the tour operator's signature, and the entire fleet of twelve is currently being converted to electric power, with four EV Tundra Buggies already in operation. Frontiers North Adventures’ program spans wild polar bears in autumn, beluga whales in summer and the northern lights through the winter months.
Credit: Travel Manitoba Credit: Alex Cupeiro Credit: Alex Cupeiro
On the tundra, travellers are rarely alone in the bear's company. Throughout polar bear season, Polar Bears International Field Ambassadors - field researchers, animal caregivers and educators from accredited zoological institutions - accompany Frontiers North’ guests aboard the Tundra Buggies. Their in-depth talks on polar bear biology, ongoing research projects and the changes unfolding in the Arctic complement the interpretation of Frontiers North Adventures' guides. Wildlife encounters become learning moments. A distant bear resting in the willows turns, through a researcher's eye, into a chapter of a larger story about ice, climate and coexistence.
Credit: Jessica Burtnick Credit: Alex Cupeiro
At the heart of the partnership is EV Tundra Buggy One, a vehicle Frontiers North Adventures developed exclusively with and for Polar Bears International. It serves as both research platform and mobile broadcast studio: each autumn, the globally followed live polar bear cams on explore.org are operated from here, and Tundra Buggy One is also the studio behind Tundra Connections®, live webcasts that link scientists in the field with classrooms and audiences around the world. In 2023 alone, the program reached more than 430,000 people.
A journey alongside the researchers
For travellers who want to go deeper, Frontiers North Adventures' Conservation Journey®: Polar Bears is the clearest expression of the 25-year alliance. On this six-night adventure, guests travel from Winnipeg to Churchill in the company of a leading Polar Bears International scientist. The itinerary threads together the places where research happens: the Polar Bears International House in Churchill, the Tundra Buggy Lodge - where nights are spent amongst wild polar bears on the open tundra - and the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, where the conversation about polar bear biology, genetics and human-bear coexistence continues indoors. Partial proceeds from every guest go directly to Polar Bears International, supporting ongoing conservation efforts.
Tundra Buggy Lodge - Credit: Neil Mumby Tundra Buggy Lodge - Credit: Frontiers North Adventures Polar Bears International House in Churchill - Credit: Travel Manitoba Polar Bears International House in Churchill - Credit: Colby Spence Polar Bears International House in Churchill - Credit: Madeline Grant Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre Winnipeg - Credit: Alex Cupeiro
The scientific footprint of Polar Bears International ranges far beyond a single bay. Population studies, denning research, genetics, human-bear coexistence and the integration of Indigenous knowledge all sit within the organisation's remit.
Twenty-five years is a long time in the life of any alliance - and a long time, too, in the life of the North. What began with a handful of photographers on a Tundra Buggy has grown into a model for how responsible wildlife tourism and serious science can work hand in hand. For travellers, an encounter with a polar bear on the shores of Hudson Bay becomes an invitation into a longer story - one that will outlast the season and, with luck and stewardship, the ice itself.
Further information on Churchill, Frontiers North Adventures and Polar Bears International can be found at www.travelmanitoba.com, www.frontiersnorth.com, and www.polarbearsinternational.org/what-we-do/sponsors-partners-programs/corporate-sponsorship/frontiers-north-adventures.
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