The secret lives of polar bears

Canadian-Slovak photographer Martin Gregus is garnering worldwide attention after winning the Rising Star Portfolio Award in the National History Museum’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition. Gregus’ winning portfolio chronicles the summer lives of polar bears on the western coast of Hudson Bay. The photos were all captured on an expedition Gregus made last year.

Most polar bear photography depicts the iconic animals on a backdrop of ice and snow, but Gregus’ photos present a different view of the Canadian Arctic, with the bears bedding down on soft moss and swimming in crystal clear, ice-free waters. He’s also observed a more social side to these nomadic predators. From the close bonds between the bears, to the ways they’re adapted to their Arctic environment, the WPY-winning portfolio captures a side of polar bears we don’t often see. See the winning images, and read the stories behind them.

50 years of Canadian multiculturalism

On Oct 8, 1971, then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced multiculturalism as an official government policy. On the 50th anniversary of the announcement, Canadian Geographic published a series of five essays that explore the theme. The series forms part of Commemorate Canada, a Canadian Heritage program to highlight significant Canadian anniversaries. It gives Canadian Geographic a chance to look at these points of history with a sometimes celebratory, sometimes critical, eye. Professor Anna Triandafyllidou asks, “Who is gate-keeping Canadianness?” while Omar Mouallem reflects on being Muslim in Canada. Dora Nipp reveals the importance of chronicling migrant, ethnic and Indigenous stories as an essential means to understanding Canada in the 20th century and beyond, Michael Adams delves into the poll data about Canadians’ thoughts on multiculturalism, and finally, Elamin Abdelmahmoud explores the tension between the theory and practice of multiculturalism, especially for people of colour.

Why Canadian comedy is obsessed with geography

Canadian comedy has a strange obsession with geography. Everywhere else in the world, comedy is either about family (The Simpsons, Family Guy, Modern Family) or small groups of attractive young people (Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother, Friends) or workplaces (The Office, The IT Crowd, Ted Lasso, Parks and Recreation). Not in Canada. In Canada, comedies are about places. You can see it in the titles: Kim’s Convenience, Letterkenny, Schitt’s Creek.

The geographic obsession shouldn’t come as a surprise. So much Canadian art ultimately boils down to landscape. In Canada, the land comes first; the people after. But landscape is a harder fit for comedy than it is for literature or the visual arts, which is why the strange preponderance of landscape in Canadian comedy is such a testament to the dominance of our national trait. There’s nothing inherently funny about a lake or a mountain or a town. But we’ve somehow found the comedy in them.
Read the full essay by Stephen Marche

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Join us for a celebration of geography!

Each year the Royal Canadian Geographical Society hosts the College of Fellows Annual Dinner, its largest fundraising event of the year, to raise critical support for its educational programming initiatives. With COVID-19 limiting large group gatherings, the Society has taken the event virtual, producing a one-hour made-for-broadcast special, dubbed the Fellows Show, which is streamed live on YouTube and Facebook.
Canadian broadcaster Aliya Jasmine Sovani will once again host this year’s show, which will feature a women-in-science panel moderated by science journalist Alanna Mitchell and featuring Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jenni Sidey-Gibbons, astronomer Sara Seager, and ecologist Maydianne Andrade. We’ll also hear from some exciting VIP guests. Who, you ask? You’ll have to tune in to find out.
VIP pre-show

Although we will miss seeing you in person, we are once again offering some exciting VIP perks for the Society’s supporters. Those who purchase a $150 VIP ticket will be treated to an exclusive pre-show Zoom call with RCGS Westaway Explorer-in-Residence and bestselling author Adam Shoalts. Shoalts will discuss his recent adventures, including the expedition he undertook in Labrador to research his most recent book, The Whisper on the Night Wind, and will take part in a Q&A with guests. All VIP guests will receive a signed copy of The Whisper on the Night Wind. Upgrade to a VIP Gold ticket for $50 more and you’ll receive a complete Adam Shoalts library, including signed copies of his other bestselling books, Beyond the Trees, Alone Against the North and A History of Canada in Ten Maps.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from one of Canada’s foremost explorers!

Is there a way out of our climate and biodiversity crises?

For Harley, who studies how animal distributions are shifting as the climate changes, it’s a perfect site for student-run experiments: local and accessible, with large tides exposing a range of organisms to climate-driven ocean acidification, salinity fluctuations and rising air temperatures. This particular week, one of the lowest tides of the year coincides with an unprecedented heatwave, and so, despite the north-facing spot being somewhat buffered by the cool North Pacific, Harley anticipated at least some effects of the hot weather. What he encountered, however, was haunting.

“The smell was overwhelming,” he says, “so I knew there’d been a significant mortality event. Still, the magnitude was a shock.”
Read the full feature story by Leslie Anthony