Wapusk National Park

Wapusk National Park
Polar bear at Cape Churchill
Coordinates: 57 ° 42 ′ 0 ″  N , 93 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  W.
Location:	Manitoba , Canada
Next city:	Churchill (Manitoba)
Surface:	11,475 km²
Founding:	1996
Visitors:	106 (2016/2017)
Address:	Wapusk National Park P.O. Box 127 Churchill, Manitoba R0B 0E0 Canada Tel. [phone]

The Wapusk- National Park ( English Wapusk National Park of Canada , French Parc national du Canada Wapusk ) extends Hudson-James Lowlands (Hudson James Lowlands) about 50 km east of the town of Churchill (Manitoba) on the shores of Hudson Bay from Cape Churchill south to the mouth of the Nelson River . It was established in 1996 as the ninth largest Canadian national park and is 11,475 km² in size. This makes it the larger of the two national parks in the province of Manitoba . Wapusk is the Cree word for "white bear"; the name indicates that what is probably the most important polar bear birth cave area in the world is located within the park boundaries .

history

When dating prehistoric relics in the Arctic, research benefits from the fact that the earth's surface rose in many places after the last ice age (i.e. after approx. 8000 BC) as a result of the disappearance of the enormous pressure of the glacier masses, and large areas of sea became more in the mainland have converted (so-called "isostatic rebound effect"). Islands in the prehistoric (scientifically known as the Tyrell Sea) Hudson Bay are now highlands, and large parts of the former Tyrell sea floor are now more than 30 m above the level of Hudson Bay. This made the sea level measurement a very precise measure of prehistoric times.

The oldest sites, namely those of the Pre-Dorset culture , are mainly in the upper mountain regions. Settlement relics from the time of the Dorset culture , including those of the Thule culture , are located lower down .

Archaeological finds, including tools and weapons made from bones, pieces of rock and wood, show that the area of ​​the Wapusk National Park was settled by nomadic hunters, primarily of the pre-Dorset culture, about 4,000 years ago. It has been proven that these pre-Dorset people hunted caribou on the mainland in summer and ringed seals on the ice of Hudson Bay in winter .

Their descendants, members of the Dorset culture, settled the region around 600 BC. Chr. Of them testify advanced hunting weapons such as arrow and bow or harpoons and residues of made of animal skins kayaks that allow them to Robben - Walrus - and Weißwaljagd went.

Around the year 1000 AD, like all their predecessors from Alaska  , the first Thule people, the direct ancestors of today's Inuit , appeared, and the Dorset people disappeared. Characteristics of the Thule culture are a different style of living, improved hunting weapons and the umiak that can be occupied by up to 20 people . See also the general article Inuit culture .

In the so-called "pre-contact period", ie before the arrival of Europeans and the appearance of Métis in the 17th century , Inuit , Chipewyan and Cree Indians lived as nomads and in camps in the area of ​​the Wapusk National Park .

The first Europeans came to the region in the winter of 1619 looking for the Northwest Passage - a 64-man Danish expedition under the command of Jens Munk . The seafarers, however, were not prepared for the harsher conditions in the Arctic as a result of the Little Ice Age ; so it came to a catastrophe, and only Jens Munk and two of his men returned to Denmark. In the period that followed, the prospect of rich fur deposits brought English and French troops and traders into the country fighting over property rights. The English Hudson's Bay Company began the 40-year construction of Fort Prince of Wales to protect against French attacks in 1732 , but in 1782 it was destroyed by a French fleet. At that time, near the fort to the west of Wapusk National Park and the York Factory (Manitoba) to the south, the first permanent aboriginal settlements emerged.

geology

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  Knight's Hill - an esker about 15 km west of Wapusk Park

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  Cape Churchill on the northeast corner of the park

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  Cape Churchill

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  Surging Hudson Bay waves

The flat limestone plain of the Wapusk National Park is geologically very young. 4000 years ago most of the area was below the level of the Tyrell Sea, and only small islands appeared above the surface of the water. Under the effect of the isostatic rebound effect as a result of the pressure relief caused by the melting of the Ice Age glaciers, there has since been a continuous rise in the sea floor to in some cases more than 30 m above sea level, and even today the floor rises by around one meter over the course of a century. The changes can be seen in long, step-shaped channels that run up to 100 kilometers inland parallel to the beaches of Hudson Bay.

landscape

Tundra landscape, mother bear with three cubs

Northern lights at moonset

The park region comprises 4 biomes - from the coastal area with tidal lowlands to boreal forest with spruce , larch and willow vegetation , in between extensive tundra with plants nestling against the ground and taiga with a mixture of wet and dry habitats , marshland and grassy areas as well as sporadic tree vegetation .

The landscape of the Wapusk National Park is thus shaped by

• a coastal area with salty marshes, dunes, beaches and intertidal zones extending up to 10 kilometers inland,
• a tundra zone with prehistoric beach deformation, green areas covered with sedges, moorland and tundra swamps,
• a taiga area with a stunted northern forest of spruce, larch and willow,
• Water that covers and forms about half of the park area with lakes, bogs, swamps, streams and rivers (largest contiguous bog area in North America) and
• continuous permafrost .

More than half of the area is covered by peat bog. The layer is up to 4 meters thick and therefore has ideal conditions for digging caves.

Climatic conditions

Hudson Bay washes the northeast coast of Manitoba with large amounts of icy water from the Arctic Ocean , creating a microclimate south of the 60th parallel that is essentially the same as that of the Arctic and transforms large parts of the area into an arctic desert with less than 300 mm of precipitation. The Wapusk National Park is one of the coldest and most inhospitable regions of Canada in winter. Even during hot summers, temperatures can suddenly drop extremely and be life-threatening as a result of wind chills.

fauna

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  Polar Bear Birth Caves (Summer)

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  Polar bear mother and cubs

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  Lazy bear

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  Approaching polar bear

Probably the most important polar bear birth cave area in the world extends within the Wapusk National Park . The polar bears hunt their favorite food, ringed and bearded seals, on the sea ice of Hudson Bay from November until the ice melts in early summer. In spring they mate on the sea ice. As soon as the ice begins to melt, the bears are forced to retreat onto land. Here they have to wait about 4 months and fast until new sea ice forms and they can hunt again. At peak times there are likely to be 1200 polar bears in the park area. Pregnant females begin digging their birth cavities in the fall by digging holes in esker slopes , which are then enveloped in winter snow. They give birth to their young in January. The boys stay with the mother for two years, and only then is she able to conceive again. Although the numbers vary from year to year, an average of around 200 mother bears stay in the national park each winter to raise their young.

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  Polar bear and arctic fox

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  polar fox

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  Caribou herd

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  Snow (shoe) hare

The biodiversity of the national park is unusually large, which is due to the fact that the arctic (tundra) and subarctic (taiga) meet here. A total of 44 species of marine and land mammals were counted, including the Cape Churchill caribou herd with more than 3000 animals, arctic foxes and mountain hares , ringed and bearded seals and beluga whales . In fact, there are only a few areas where polar bears, black bears , occasionally also grizzly bears , elk , caribou, arctic foxes, red foxes with their subspecies cross foxes and beluga whales occur together. It is also estimated that more than 10,000 beluga whales live in Hudson Bay, 3500 of them in the Cape Churchill region alone, where they move to warmer rivers to raise their newborn offspring immediately after the ice breakup.

In addition, the park offers habitat for around 200 bird species - hundreds of thousands of sea ​​and shorebirds , some of which nest on the Hudson Bay coasts and lake shores, and some find suitable resting and feeding places during their annual migrations.

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  Canada Geese

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  Willow ptarmigan

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  Snow geese

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  Whimbrel at the nest

Especially Canada geese , snow geese and Pfeifschwäne (tundra swans) have that can seep their breeding grounds in the pools and shallow lakes, which are formed from the water of rainfall because of the permafrost subsoil not. Whole areas in the park have already been robbed of the vegetation that serves them as food.

The region is also known for the occurrence of the very rare rose gull from Siberia . Ptarmigan and great gray owl keep flying up the tundra, and on the lakes the Odin's chicken shows its agile movements. Sperber- and snowy owls , Raufußkäuze , hiking and gyrfalcon , terns , skuas , ravens , American wigeon and American ringed plover can be observed again and again.

flora

Tundra soils are very acidic due to the heavy lichen growth , and they produce large amounts of methane and carbon dioxide gas. The common assumption that tundra is frozen land is not entirely correct: permafrost , the permanently frozen part of the tundra, only begins 20 to 60 cm below the surface of the earth; the layers of the soil above thaw in summer and only freeze in winter, thus forming a crust of earth that enables a large number of arctic plants to survive. Since most plants need a minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius for their growth, they usually stay as low as possible on the ground (less than 5 cm in height), whereby they avoid the cold winds.

More than 400 different plant species have been identified in the area of ​​the Wapusk National Park, a number that is based on the 4 different biomes that comprise the region. The individual species sometimes show greater differences to their immediate relatives in more southern areas and in the higher Arctic. This is especially true with regard to the coloration, which is presumably based on a slightly changed wavelength of sunlight compared to other regions (redshift).

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  Marshland

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  Wetland with glowing white reindeer lichens

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  Polar bear on the tundra buggy

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  Tundra Buggy Lodge

tourism

An abundance of flora and fauna makes the Wapusk National Park and the Churchill region interesting for nature-loving tourists not only during the "polar bear months" of October and November, but also in the summer months.

More than 15,000 visitors a year are mainly in the town of Churchill, west of the Wapusk National Park, and its surroundings. But hardly more than 100-200 people come to the national park itself. Although both areas are right next to each other, they differ significantly. The landscape around Churchill lies at the end of a coastal strip that leads west from Cape Churchill. There the Canadian shield extends to the surface of the earth and thus forms a solid habitable underground. The Wapusk Park, on the other hand, is an almost inaccessible landscape, practically only accessible by helicopter, with several thousand lakes and swampy peat bogs without paved paths, dominated by myriads of mosquitoes in summer.

There are therefore a few special features to consider, including:

• The Wapusk National Park is not easily accessible: Special vehicles or a helicopter are required to get to the park area.
• There is a risk of unexpected confrontations with polar bears in the park all year round.
• For reasons of animal welfare, strict rules for staying inside the park have been issued. For example, only one tour company has the authorization to set up a lodge on wheels (“Tundra Buggy Lodge”) in the park for a period limited to October and November. And only one other company is allowed to give photo tourists a glimpse of newly born polar bears that are leaving their birth caves for the first time on snowmobile tours towards the end of winter.

literature

• Dennis Fast & Rebecca L. Grambo: Wapusk - White Bear of the North, Heartland Ass. Inc., Winnipeg MB 2003 ISBN 1-896150-32-2
• Karen L. Johnson: Wild Flowers of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Region, Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, Winnipeg 1987 ISBN 0-920704-15-8

Web links

Commons : Wapusk National Park  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Wapusk National Park , on Parks Canada , (English, French)
• World Database on Protected Areas - Wapusk National Park (English)