Churchill - Polar Bear Town

Main Street

"While you were in Churchill, did you go to the town dump? It's supposed to be a really great for spotting bears." Gill, a good friend, had wanted to go to Churchill for a while and even offered to carry our bags so that she could join us. 

Having had some superb bear sightings, going to the town dump would have been an anticlimax. Who wants to see such magnificent creatures rummaging for food and scraps in a garbage pile, when you've seen them up close and personal on the shores of Hudson Bay. 

In the end, we only had one afternoon and night in Churchill, and after a brief visit to the Eskimo Museum, we spent the rest of the evening in the local pub. We stayed overnight in a very friendly and comfy B&B - the Bear's Den. The owners have it up for sale so we can't guarantee what it will be like in the future, but they supplied hair driers and the best cooked breakfast we had on our whole Canadian trip. It was over breakfast that Gordy, the owner, told us about a bear attack that happened in town the previous year. He explained that three people were making their way home from the pub after curfew (to protect people against marauding bears) when a bear pounced on them and grabbed the woman. The two men "bravely" ran for help. In the meantime, a nearby resident came out to assist and hit the bear with a shovel. He rescued the girl but the bear turned on him instead. The have-a-go hero was badly mauled before another local man managed to scare the bear off with his car. This had happened on the same street we walked to and from the pub for dinner and Gordy even described how he had seen a bear come right up to his front door on another occasion.  It made us think about the dangers of living in a community that is regularly visited by the world's largest land predator.

Back with the group, one of the couples described how they had spotted a bear in town when they were walking back to their hotel the previous evening. Gulp! It could have been so much worse.


The town takes all kinds of measures to prevent bear attacks. There is a regular patrol that is well equipped to scare them off. If a bear is persistent, it is caught and taken to the Polar Bear Jail. In the first few years of its existence, the bears were given food and water while serving their time. A practice which led to freed bears returning straight back to the town, and more specifically the jail, for a free feed. Now the beasts just get water. Time served is in proportion to the nuisance they have caused and whether they are repeat offenders. Once they have done their time, the bears are helicoptered up the coast, away from the town. And if you're wondering how they get a polar bear into a helicopter, they don't. The bear is drugged and put into a sling underneath. That's one hell of a come down after their drug-induced high.

Anyway, another defensive measure the townsfolk have taken is to enclose the dump in a building. The bears can no longer scavenge for scraps, although, with long memories, they still return to the old site in the hope of finding food. As memories fade and the older bears die, the people of Churchill hope to reclaim another part of their town.