Bad Bears, Bad Bears..Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For You!

Churchill is a place where at this time of year, the bear

population swells to around 1000, the human population is around 900, and who knows how many tourists like myself were running about town! Obviously, some crowd control is needed to keep the people safe from the bears, but also to keep the bears safe from the people defending their property! Some years ago, the concept of a polar bear jail was developed as a means of conservation and protection of each species from each other.

So, conservation officers patrol the town in trucks and when a bear starts to wander too close to town (the beach is a favorite bear hangout) they shoot off crackers from a shotgun. Basically its a blank noisemaker type of shell. Most bears are taken aback and scamper in the opposite direction, some it may take several crackers to make them move it along!

When that doesn't work....they resort to trapping. These culvert traps are on a trailer and are taken to a habituated bears favorite spot, and baited with seal meat. When the bear hops in, the gate closes and voila...a trapped bear! The bear is not harmed, and upon capture a conservation officer retrieves the trailer and hauls him (or her) off to jail! On the 12th I did see a truck pulling out of an area with a culvert trap behind him....but too busy to stop as we had to chase a bear away from the guide's home!

Polar Bear Jail, is like a double wide Quonsethut that has 23 cinder block cells. The bears can NOT see each other, can you imagine the commotion??!! As of the 10th there were 11 occupants. Since they are normally in a fasting state at this time of year, they are not fed, but are given fresh water. As the ice approaches and cold weather arrives, one by one the bears are eventually all airlifted to the sea ice, or many miles away. They are first tranquilized and put in a large net that is suspended from a helicopter! What a sight that would be...a helicopter flying with a large white ball suspended beneath! Too bad none were airlifted while I was there, would be interesting to see!

BUT..that evening (totally by coincidence) we did get to see a yearling orphan brought in! We were on the CNSC bus and had just pulled up and were going to go out and take a look at the jail, when out of nowhere, a helicopter lands! Needless to say, we had to wait for the rotors to stop before we were allowed to get off. Nothing could have prepared us for what happened next. Some research folks get out...and then a guy jumps out carrying a HUGE ball of white fur! Sorry for the blurry shots...we had NO IDEA what was going to happen! Anyway, I was able to get 3 action shots of him running the bear into the jail!

Apparently some time recently, an orphaned cub had been found. They were able to capture her and held her in jail until they could arrange an "adoption". They tranquilize the cub and put her in the back of the helicopter and go off in search of a mother with a cub the same age. Once they locate a potential mom, they dart the mom from above, once on the ground they also tranquilize the cub. Everyone is slathered in Vicks Vapo-Rub (to disguise the scent) and I assume marked or tagged. They have had some success with this, some failures and a few times they lost contact with the family so not really sure...at least the cubs are given a chance.

On this evening, the potential surrogate was acting very hostile toward the helicopter and they were unable to dart her, the chopper was running low on fuel, and as you can see, darkness was closing in. A few days later they did find a surrogate, but when'

trying to locate the family a few days later, the orphan was not with them....they still continue to search for her from what I am told.