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May/June 2005 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Bioprospecting In-depth: Bioprospecting The Inside Story Editor’s Notebook Reverberations Explorer À la carte Mosaic

I don’t usually check for polar bears before stepping out my front door, but in Ukkusiksalik National Park, it becomes as much a part of the daily routine as applying bug spray and sunscreen. I am with a dozen other guests at Sila Lodge, the only accommodation in this preserve along the northwest coast of Hudson Bay, and we were explicitly told on arrival not to walk outside without looking around or to wander off without a guide. The claw marks on the buildings and paw prints on the windows are powerful incentives to comply.

The lodge lies at the west end of Wager Bay, the 170-kilometre-long inland sea at the heart of Canada’s forty-first national park, and I am here on a last-minute adventure arranged by a fellow photographer, thrilled at the prospect of catching a glimpse of polar bears in their primeval world — a place that has changed little since the glaciers began to retreat about 10,000 years ago.

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For related stories, facts and figures, visit CG’s Explorer Online: Visit Nunavut’s Ukkusiksalik National Park and its inhabitants online