Topic updates

Welcome to Churchill – the Polar Bear Capital of the World!

Vicki Woolven

21st January 2025

Last night I watched the excellent 'Where the Polar Bears Wait' on BBC iPlayer - it is a great example of a cold environment where local people live in fear of polar bears but also depend on them for tourism, so therefore are working hard to ensure that people and wildlife can co-exist in harmony.

Churchill in situated on Hudson Bay in Canada as is known as the polar bear capital of the world. It is the place they spend their summer after being forced to come ashore as the frozen waters of the bay thaw. And they will stay there until the autumn, waiting for the freeze to set in so they can head back to see to dine on seals, often extremely hungry after a summer enforced diet due to the lack of available food on land for them.

People in Churchill are very aware of the danger posed by polar bears – shops, cafes and schools all have warning posters reminding them to be “bear aware”, with advice ranging from “punch them in the nose”, to “if a bear attacks, you must fight back!” And of course, polar bears are huge animals and can run at 25mph – so being prepared seems a good plan!

However, in the last 40 years the local polar bear population has declined to around half – with approximately 600 left. This is because Hudson Bay is frozen for a much shorter amount of time, and the lack of ice makes it harder for hunting. And a longer spell on land, with the lack of food, is not good news for polar bears, particularly those carrying, or that have just had, cubs, with many pregnancies failing and many cubs starving to death.

But, whilst many in Churchill fear the bears, they pull in conservation scientists, such as Polar Bears International (PBI), who have developed radar technology dubbed ‘bear-dah’ to monitor the polar bears, in order to protect both the bears and the local population.

The polar bears also attract thousands of tourists each year, who travel in off-road Tundra buggies (like those in the image below) to get up close to these magnificent creatures – which is quite risky at times as you can see in the video clip below.

Churchill is patrolled by the Polar Bear Alert Team – these are trained rangers whose job it is to try to chase polar bears away from the local community. However, some of these bears are quite stubborn and don’t always take the hint that they are unwelcome. Instead, those persistent polar bears will be lured into a large container using seal meat as bait – when the bear climbs inside a trigger closes the door and traps them inside where they are then held for a month before being moved on and released. The release is usually on the back of a trailer, but sometimes involves being airlifted by helicopter so they can be released much further away. Since the Polar Bear Alert Team was established there have been no deaths from polar bear attack – so they are clearly doing a good job!

For more information about the polar bears in Churchill, watch:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/...

How a Canadian town is teaching polar bears to fear humans in order to save them

Polar Bear Country, Churchill, Manitoba

Vicki Woolven

Vicki Woolven is Subject Lead for Geography and Key Stage 4 Sociology and History at tutor2u. She is also an experienced senior examiner and content writer. Vicki previously worked as a Head of Geography and Sociology for many years, leading her department to be one of the GA's first Centres of Excellent, and was a local authority Key Practitioner for Humanities.

© 2002-2025 Tutor2u Limited. Company Reg no: 04489574. VAT reg no 816865400.