Conservation officers find more polar bear dens near Manitoba-Ontario boundary

August 20, 2012 by legitgov

Conservation officers find more polar bear dens near Manitoba-Ontario boundary 20 Aug 2012 Manitoba conservation officials have stumbled across a pleasant surprise -- a large number of polar bear dens along the Hudson Bay coast near the Ontario boundary. The dens lie in an area southeast of Wapusk National Park and east of the Nelson River. It's a region along the southern end of the polar bear's range and not as well-known as Wapusk, Churchill and other areas to the north. But the area's polar bears are threatened by a shrinking feeding season. The amount of time every year that ice covers that stretch of Hudson Bay, allowing the bears to hunt seals, has been reduced by three weeks. That makes it harder for female bears to gain enough weight to give birth.