Wapusk National Park
Wapusk National Parks | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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Cape Churchill in summertime
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Location of Wapusk National Park in Canada
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Location | Manitoba, Canada |
Nearest city | Churchill |
Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Area | 11,475 square kilometres (4,430 sq mi) |
Established | 1996 |
Governing body | Parks Canada |
Website | Wapusk National Park |
Wapusk National Park is Canada's 37th national park, established in 1996. The park is located in the Hudson Plains ecozone, 45 kilometres (28 mi) south of Churchill in north-east Manitoba, Canada, on the shores of Hudson Bay. Access to the park is limited due to its remote location and an effort to preserve the park. The name comes from the Cree word for polar bear (wâpask).[1] The Park is also home to Cape Churchill, which is renowned as the best location in the world to view and photograph wild polar bears. The only way people can access Cape Churchill is by helicopter or Tundra Buggy.
The park was the subject of a short film in 2011's National Parks Project, directed by Hubert Davis and scored by Kathleen Edwards, Matt Mays and Sam Roberts.
Overview
Wapusk is the Cree word for "white bear", and as the meaning indicates, the 11,475-square-kilometre (4,430 sq mi) park protects one of the world's largest known polar bear maternity denning areas. It includes a large part of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, a subarctic region bordering Hudson Bay that is mostly muskeg and wet peatlands. It is one of the wildest and most remote of Canadian landscapes.
Numerous birds are found in the Wapusk National Park and it is a likely breeding area of the short-billed dowitcher.[2] The Wapusk National Park is a significant maternity denning area for the polar bear, Ursus maritimus.[3]
In a 2010 report biologists affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History and City College of the City University of New York have prepared a new report published in Canadian Field Naturalist that offers the first documented evidence the temperamental grizzly bears are migrating into polar bear territory. Researchers found that seven grizzlies have been spotted in Wapusk National Park south of Churchill, between 2003 and 2008.[4][5]
Fauna
This national park is home to animals such as Great grey owls, polar bears, wolves, lemmings, ivory gulls, Arctic foxes, peregrine falcons, snowshoe hares, caribou, red foxes, and Caspian terns.
Rivers
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Schneehase 2004-11-14.jpg
Snowshoe hare
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Schneehuhn 2000-11-22.jpg
Willow ptarmigan
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Polarlichter 2003-11-15.jpg
Northern Lights
See also
References
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Category:{{#property:P373}}|{{#property:P373}}]]. |
- Pages with broken file links
- IUCN Category II
- Pages using infobox map without location map
- Commons category link is locally defined
- Official website not in Wikidata
- National Parks of Canada in Manitoba
- Parks in Manitoba
- Northern Region, Manitoba
- Protected areas established in 1996
- 1996 establishments in Manitoba