Coexistence of Polar Bears and Humans

Churchill is home to humans and polar bears. They need to coexist safely. Polar bears are the “kings of the arctic.” Knowing this, polar bears and humans basically have to make a treaty or agreement on how to use the land.

As we sat in the bus, a polar bear walked down the street. The people of Churchill consist of 800 people and is a very small town. However this town is right in the center of the dream life for a polar bear. Polar bears come to this town to wait for the Hudson Bay to freeze and go catch seals on the Hudson Bay sea ice. Polar bears have to wait for the water to freeze to get food. This means that if the water doesn’t freeze the polar bears will likely starve. If the polar bears are hungry, they will come to the town in search of food. This is very dangerous for the bears and humans. The bears will try to have the humans as their next meal. The Churchilians know this danger so they are prepared for the bears to come into town.

The Polar Bear Alert get alerted by a hotline ((204)675-BEAR) when a person sees a bear. The group makes a decision based on zone to send a conservation officer out. When they find out the polar bear is directly in town they immediately find and go to the bear. Once they see the bear depending on how far it is in town they decide how to handle it. If it is threatening a human, they will tranquilize the bear or chase the bear out of town using a truck with a sound board with 180 sounds to scare it to move. If they tranquilize the bear they will put the bear in a place called Polar Bear Holding Facility or Polar BearJail. Polar Bear Jail is the storage place to hold misbehaved polar bears. It can hold about 30 polar bears. The bears stay there up to 30 days maximum. When they are in jail, they will not be fed. They won’t be fed so the polar bears learn a lesson. We wouldn’t want the polar bear to want to go to jail or come into town to get there.

Churchill provides a lot of education on bear safety to its community and visitors. People learn to stay their distance and avoid areas during specific seasons. The people share their town with the bears. This helps people understand to appreciate the polar bears and give them room to live together with humans.