The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Wildlife adventure
Local mother and son check out polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba
By Sue G. Collins, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: January 4, 2007
Folks around the dinner table at Brian Ottum's house may want to watch what they say. He's been known to take an innocent comment and blow it all out of proportion.
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In some families, that could be a problem, but in the Ottum family, it could mean a dream come true.
That's exactly what happened last winter when Brian's mother, visiting from Madison, Wis., casually mentioned a TV show she'd seen about a place in Canada where polar bears live and occasionally venture into town.
A few months later, Brian presented his mother with tickets to Churchill, Manitoba, where just the two of them would spend five days traveling in a "tundra buggy," viewing polar bears, arctic foxes and ptarmigan by day, and the Aurora Borealis by night.
"Mom innocently said she'd like to see polar bears 'someday,'" said Ottum, who lives in Saline with his wife, Mona, and their children, Paul and Sarah. "After doing my homework, I called her bluff. I asked if she'd like to go to Churchill to see the bears up close and personal. We did it."
Peggy said her son had the travel planner send brochures about the excursion to her house and that when he proposed the trip, he explained he'd give her a few days to think about it.
"I didn't need to think about it at all," said Peggy, 79, whose first wildlife expedition was in 1949 on her honeymoon, where, upon seeing a bear for the first time outside the zoo, she set out to pet it. "My husband came back from the outhouse, saw me petting the bear by the cabin and couldn't believe his eyes," she said.
Ever since, she's collected bear figurines and has held a special place in her heart for the white polar bears. She finally got to see them in their natural habitat in October.
Brian and Peggy joined one of the polar bear trips with Natural Habitat Adventures and stayed in a rustic lodge on the Hudson Bay surrounded by wilderness, hopping on board the buggy –– half recreation vehicle and half train — each day that bounced them along wilderness roads, where they took in the sights with 26 travelers from around the globe. Churchill is renowned for its polar bears and their antics.
"In our first 18 hours, we'd boarded the buggy, which was like a theme-park ride, saw a den of arctic foxes, were surprised by large bears at the lodge when we checked in and then experienced an amazing display of Northern Lights," Brian said.
An avid photographer and astronomer, Brian took more than 400 digital photos and made an album for his mother, who shares them with her neighbors and friends back in Madison. Among those friends are members of her local Red Hat Society.
"When those women found out my mom was going to see the polar bears in Canada, they said they would see us there," Brian said. "They had planned a trip too, and we met them on the train platform in Churchill where our trips overlapped by 10 minutes."
While seeing friends so far from home was exciting, Peggy said one of the highlights for her was seeing the Aurora Borealis directly overhead.
She also enjoyed the white arctic foxes who seemed happy to perform for visitors, coming very close to the buggy.
"Was I ever scared? Ha," Peggy said. "Fear is rather stupid. I love bears and animals and this was the trip of a lifetime."
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