Todays Desination section of USA Today lists the Churchill Bears as one of the 5 on the verge of vanishing places to visit in the world. Since several expressed an interested - including myself - I am copying story here.

(2) Polar bears on Hudson Bay
Where: Hudson Bay is where the southernmost and best-studied populations live.

The threat: About 60% of the estimated 22,000 polar bears live in the Canadian Arctic. The planet's largest land-dwelling carnivores are a sight to behold. Sea ice is essential to their survival because it is the platform from which they hunt ringed seals and other prey. Global warming is causing the ice to retract, threatening the bears' ability to hunt and breed. At this rate, the sea ice could disappear by 2050.

"They will lose their habitat, and if you don't have your habitat, you don't have anything," says Lara Hansen, chief scientist for climate change at World Wildlife Fund.


The prognosis: Polar bears need to maintain a minimum weight to reproduce; those in the Hudson Bay population are approaching a weight at which breeding will no longer be possible. The bears can migrate north, but unless action is taken to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which cause global temperature increases, "we'll slowly be moving the line of polar bears until there is nowhere else for them to be," Hansen says.

Seeing them: Viewing trips are offered out of Churchill, Manitoba. Outfitters include WWF partner Natural Habitat Adventures, whose all-inclusive seven-day trips in October and November, including airfare from Winnipeg, start at $3795, double. 800-543-8917; nathab.com.