The town of Churchill in Manitoba lies on the western side of the Hudson Bay, housing just under 900 year-round residents. It is known as the “Polar Bear Capital” of the world as much of the town’s industry centers around the polar bears roaming the nearby arctic wilderness.Nearly 850 polar bears live on the Hudson Bay sea ice near Churchill during the winter, when they hunt and fish the inhabitants of the bay. Between August and November when the sea ice melts, the bears wander inland, occasionally passing through town.
In the past, bears deemed as dangerous were killed on sight, in hopes of preventing or in retaliation to attacks. In the early 80s, the town attempted a more humane approach of catch and release at the urging of environmental activists.
A conservation officer working on a helicopter during a polar bear capture [1]
The first step residents take if they see a polar bear is to get inside and report the sighting to a 24-hour hotline run by the Polar Bear Alert Program. Conservation officers then attempt to drive the bear away from the town with noise, like shooting blanks. If this does not work, the bear is lured into a trap with seal meat. If a bear is considered an immediate threat, the team tranquilizes it from a helicopter and collect it in a net. After being captured, it is brought to the Polar Bear Holding Facility or, “Polar Bear Jail”, as some affectionately call it, where the bears are held for up to 30 days without food.
Withholding food is important to prevent the bears from returning. The intent is to teach the bears that they will not find food in Churchill, deterring them from coming back after they are released to the Canadian tundra. Although the system is not perfect, it put an end to the practice of killing the bears, except in extreme cases, and minimizes the impact of the town on the surrounding environment.
Polar Bear Holding Facility [2]
The facility was originally built by the Canadian Army’s Defence Research Board in the 1950s as part of a complex for sub-orbital rocket launches to study the Earth’s atmosphere. Renovations to the facility beginning in the 1980s allow for up to 30 bears to be kept in the facility, including larger cells for mothers with cubs and five air-conditioned cells for warmer weather.
Fort Churchill, as the rocket testing facility was called, was named after the fort built in the same location by the United States Army Air Forces in 1942. The airstrip and some hangars were opened for civilian use following the end of World War II. Churchill’s airport was crucial for testing of radar called the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line during the Cold War. The DEW line was a series of radar stations across the arctic in Canada and Alaska designed to detect Russian bombers as soon as they posed a threat.
Although Churchill may be best known for its polar bears, the region has also been a hotbed of aerospace development and testing over the years. Polar bear jail connects the history of the town to its present. The remaining infrastructure from Fort Churchill provides an environmentally aware and sustainable solution to a dangerous problem while protecting all residents of the area, human and bear alike.
[1] A conservation officer working on a helicopter during a polar bear capture. Credit: Emma, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
[2] Polar Bear Holding Facility. Credit: Bear Jail. Theraven.au, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons