Wildlife enthusiasts assume that one has to travel to Africa and Asia in order to view large fauna in vast open spaces.  However, North America still contains concentrations of impressive wildlife that inhabit extraordinarily beautiful terrain.  Areas such as Yellowstone National Park and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contain some of the largest areas of protected land on Earth for endangered species.  The area featured in this portfolio is the sub-arctic Torngats National Park of Northern Labrador, situated in the beauty of Canada’s frozen wilderness. The total area of the park is 3,545 square miles (9,700 sq. km).  The park only receives a little over 500 visitors a year, due in large part to its rough terrain, challenging weather and an utter lack of roads, trails or even signs in an area three times the size of the US state of Rhode Island. The glacier cut fjords, massive icebergs and stunning landscapes are sacred to its original inhabitants, the Nunavik and Nunatsiavut Inuit peoples. Today, the descendants of these First Peoples manage the massive park and its diverse wildlife consisting of polar bears, seals, caribou, right whales, minke whales, black bears and a host of other species. The park has one of the healthiest concentrations of free roaming polar bears anywhere in the world. The polar bears are known as Nanuk by the Nunatsiavut Inuits.  To the Inuit peoples, the Nanuk represent patience, resilience and determination. Polar bears are the world’s largest land carnivores and the only animals known to stalk and actively hunt humans.  With the aid of armed bear guards, in July of 2024, I was able to stay in the Torngats for a week to photograph and track adult polar bears with their young on a number of this Canadian park’s desolate northern islands and fjords.

               The indigenous peoples living in close proximity to the wildlife and photographed here are the Nunavik and Nunatsiavut Inuit peoples.