Nat Hab’s Bear Adventures Across the Globe

What do a solar bear, a sloth bear and a polar bear have in frequent? Regardless of residing in vastly totally different habitats—suppose lush tropical jungles versus barren Arctic tundra—they do have some similarities. Be taught what these frequent threads are on Nat Hab bear-focused expeditions from Alaska to South Asia, Churchill to China.

On this roundup of Nat Hab’s bear adventures across the globe, we embody our wildlife excursions that embody vital bear-viewing alternatives. Watch grizzly bear cubs cavort on a riverbank in Alaska. See big pandas and moon bears up shut in Sichuan. Marvel at a polar bear’s dinner plate-sized paws because it lopes beside our Polar Rover within the Arctic. And glimpse American black bears in our nation’s favourite nationwide parks.

In fact, on all of those journeys, there’s numerous different wildlife to see, whether or not that’s orcas and bald eagles on Canada’s far-western coast or Asian elephants and Bengal tigers in India. Our small group sizes, skilled naturalists and fervour for wildlife conservation be sure that your expertise will not be solely revealing, however accountable. Right here’s the place you’ll be able to see our favourite bears on the earth.

Grizzlies in Lake Clark Nationwide Park, Alaska

We soar by bush aircraft into the deep Alaska wilderness of Prepare dinner Inlet, the ice-clad Aleutian Vary and Lake Clark Nationwide Park. It’s right here on this distant setting, amidst lively volcanoes, large glaciers and pristine seashores, that we first glimpse the mighty brown bears that make their quiet properties right here. From our sustainable bush camp on a historic homestead inside 4 million protected acres of the ancestral homelands of the Dena’ina individuals, we enterprise out into one of many world’s most famous bear-viewing locations. From an elevated platform and even from camp, safely protected behind electrified wires, we will see this coastal model of the inside grizzly bear (similar species, Ursus arctos) chewing its meals and speaking via woofs, purrs and growls. Whether or not it’s mama bears with their spring cubs in Could or hefty males—as much as 1,500 kilos!—fishing for salmon later in the summertime, the viewing alternatives are limitless.

Extra Grizzlies in Katmai Nationwide Park, Alaska

Expertise a uncommon encounter with Ursus arctos—the biggest coastal grizzlies on the earth—as they feast on clams, mussels, sedges and spawning salmon in Katmai Nationwide Park. Summer season’s bounty brings forth these arresting Alaskan brown bears, stopping you in your tracks as you safely observe them together with your Expedition Chief, an skilled bear naturalist. There are not any roads alongside Katmai’s coast, so as an alternative, we sail from bay to bay aboard the 73-foot Pure Habitat Ursus, discovering the very best bear-viewing and pictures choices. With simply eight visitors in our celebration, it’s simple to maneuver undetected, with out intruding on the bears’ pure habitat. Watch as these magnificent beasts, North America’s largest land predators, lead their frolicking cubs alongside the shoreline, expertly catch a spawning salmon of their monumental jaws and even doze lethargically within the shade.

Polar Bears in Churchill, Manitoba

© Jeremy Covert

What at first seems like an phantasm turns into an eye-widening actuality as you understand that slowly transferring shadow on the huge expanse of tundra is a gigantic polar bear. From the elevated outside platform of our Polar Rover, you’re rewarded with a front-row seat because the hulking, shaggy, cream-colored bear strikes throughout the land, silhouetted in opposition to the horizon—or wanders over to the Rover, standing immediately beneath you beneath the steel-grate ground and exhibiting simply as a lot curiosity as we’re. The world’s biggest focus of polar bears congregates right here in Churchill as they look ahead to Hudson Bay to freeze annually. As you watch the large bears work together, from watchful moms and energetic cubs to younger males play-fighting, your Nat Hab skilled naturalist will interpret the bears’ behaviors and clarify how they thrive in such a harsh atmosphere.

Spirit Bears in Nice Bear Rainforest, British Columbia

© Joey Campbell

Seeing a particular spirit bear is a heady expertise, one I used to be lucky sufficient to have whereas visiting Milbanke Sound in British Columbia. Your personal Nat Hab journey to the Nice Bear Rainforest, tucked within the distant valleys of the Coast Vary on Canada’s far western edge, reveals this pale bear of Native legend. Only a few hundred of those bears dwell in isolation beneath thousand-year-old cedars and Sitka spruce as much as 350 ft tall. We seek for them with native Gitga’at guides, First Nations individuals who have lived right here among the many bears and the rain forest for millennia. The paranormal, creamy-white Kermode bear, also referred to as the “spirit bear,” feeds from the wealthy salmon streams of the temperate rain forest (one of many largest tracts left on Earth). The area can also be dwelling to eagles, orcas, wolves, black bears and grizzlies, all of which we hope to see as we cruise south down Douglas Channel and into the Coast Vary.

Big Pandas in Minshan Mountain, Sichuan, China

Enterprise with us into the final wild habitat of the big panda—the good rivers, deep gorges and luxurious forests of the Minshan Mountains of the Sichuan province. With our unique wildlife reserve entry, we’re in a position to enter a distant, hardly ever visited nationwide park sanctuary the place extremely elusive wild pandas dwell and breed freely. We even have the possibility to volunteer within the care of big pandas and {photograph} them at shut vary at three world-renowned panda analysis facilities. Whereas we’re right here, in little-visited wilderness enclaves supported by the World Wildlife Fund, we’ll see uncommon Asiatic black bears (or moon bears), golden snub-nosed monkeys, shaggy takin, Chinese language goral, blue sheep and beautiful birds, together with the golden pheasant. Our distinctive, fastidiously crafted itinerary reveals the hardly ever seen panda habitat and a aspect of China most guests by no means see.

Solar Bears in Borneo, Malaysia

Our exploration of the world’s third-largest island—Borneo—takes us into the traditional rain forests, jungle rivers and waterfalls that host a wide range of leaping, darting and crawling wildlife. We see endangered orangutans, flying lemurs, leaf monkeys and wild gibbons. When you’re drawn to bears, your favourite day will be the one we go to the Solar Bear Conservation Middle, devoted to the care, rehabilitation and launch of orphaned and captive solar bears. Take an unique personal tour with the founder, whom CNN known as a “Superman saving the solar bears of Malaysia,” or one in every of his shut conservation colleagues. That is the world’s smallest bear species, and whereas it enjoys a wealthy habitat in Borneo, it’s threatened (if not extinct) in lots of areas of mainland Asia on account of forest destruction and poaching.

Black Bears in Yellowstone and Glacier Nationwide Parks, United States

© Justin R. Gibson

Be part of a Nat Hab nature tour to Yellowstone or Glacier Nationwide Park and also you’ll seemingly glimpse an American black bear. Whereas we regularly consider large grizzlies or wondrous polar bears once we suppose “bear,” the black bear (the smallest of the continent’s three bear species) is commonly missed and underappreciated. They’re extremely adaptive and in a position to develop their vary, so whereas you’ll hopefully see one on a Nat Hab nationwide park journey, you may simply as simply see one at a trip cabin or in a mountain city. We’ll be looking out within the northern portion of Yellowstone, from Elk Creek to Tower Falls, and from Mammoth Scorching Springs north to Indian Creek. And, in Glacier Nationwide Park, we’ll preserve our binoculars helpful round Avalanche and St. Mary lakes and alongside the Many Glacier trails. As with all of our Nat Hab journeys, we’ll additionally take you to seldom-visited spots the place wildlife alternatives (not crowds) are extra plentiful.

Sloth Bears in India

Meet the sloth bear on a Nat Hab India departure, and also you’ll see it’s not a sloth in any respect! It was misclassified within the 1700s, seemingly due to its arboreal habits and lengthy claws. Identified by its thick, shaggy coat of fur that ranges in colour from auburn to black, the sloth bear is discovered within the tropical lowland forest of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. On a Nat Hab journey to the Indian subcontinent, we hopefully rise up shut and private with these fascinating bears as we discover three of the nation’s prime nationwide parks, together with Kaziranga and Bandhavgarh. Look, too, for Bengal tigers, one-horned rhinoceros, Asian elephants, barking deer and extra on safari drives in open 4×4 autos via these diverse habitats.

Meet the bears of our world on any of those immersive Pure Habitat journeys.