Polar Bear Alert Program
in Churchill, Manitoba

Polar bears roam the ice of Hudson Bay hunting seals. When the ice melts in July, the bears come ashore. They remain on land until the bay freezes over in late November. While on land the bears eat little and are quite inactive. As autumn approaches, they begin to move northward along the coast and congregate where the first winter ice forms. This annual movement brings many bears into the town of Churchill each year.

Polar bears are intelligent animals and learn behaviour essential for survival. Some behaviour associated with the town of Churchill (scavenging at the dump or in town) is not necessary to the bear's survival and can create a potentially dangerous, sometimes fatal, situation for both bears and people. To manage this people/bear mix, Manitoba Conservation operates the Polar Bear Alert Program, which has the following goals:

• To protect people and property from the dangers posed by the presence of polar bears; and
• To ensure the conservation of polar bears and avoid undue harassment and killing of bears.

Additionally, the program attempts to prevent polar bears in the Churchill area from becoming conditioned to scavenging for food. The Polar Bear Alert Program is preventative in nature by minimizing the possibilities of unsafe or unexpected interactions between people and polar bears. To accomplish this, a control zone around the immediate Churchill townsite and dump was established in which polar bears are not allowed. Conservation staff will also respond to requests made by the public to areas outside of the zone if a polar bear is considered to be a threat. A 24-hour hotline (675-2327 or 675-Bear) is available for people to report bears in the Churchill area.

When a bear enters the control zone, the Polar Bear Alert Team's first response is to try to move the bear out of the area, usually with scaring devices. If the bear cannot be encouraged to move or if not present when the team arrives, a live trap is set for the bear. In situations where the bear presents an immediate threat or is in the dump, the bear is immobilized with a dart gun on the site. When a bear is captured, it is moved into a specially built holding compound called D20. This polar bear compound was constructed in 1980 and can hold 23 bears.

In most years, more bears will be captured than the polar bear compound will hold. When this happens, some of the bears are transported northwest, away from Churchill, by helicopter. They rarely return to Churchill in the same year. When Hudson Bay freezes, all bears in the polar bear compound are released onto the ice.

The number of polar bears captured in the program is related to weather, ice conditions in the fall and the distribution of bears along the coast. Recently, the numbers of bears caught in Churchill has increased, due to warmer falls or (in 1999) an early spring. In spite of a hundred or more bears being processed annually, there have been no serious incidents involving the public and polar bears in Manitoba in recent years.

The major threat to the western Hudson Bay polar bear population is global warming. The increase in temperature leads to changes in the sea ice, which is the preferred habitat of polar bears. It is on the ice that bears are able to kill seals. Changes in the ice which affect the seal population or the bear's ability to kill seals would adversely affect the bear population.

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- The Polar Bear Alert Program

Call
675-2327
or
675-BEAR