John Ussak was fishing outside the Arctic hamlet of Rankin Inlet when a friend alerted him that a polar bear had been spotted in the area.
The next day, Ussak’s wife spotted the lone bear nearly a mile from their nets. Worried that the bear was stalking a popular summer fishing spot, Ussak walked over and fired a volley of warning shots. But the predator seemed unfazed.
“It took 20 shots before it thought to leave,” he said. “I’ve never seen that before.” Days later, in another part of Nunavut, two polar bears killed a radar technician in a rare attack in the area.
The deadly encounter and sightings in unusual locations foreshadow what experts say is a looming clash between polar bears and northern communities as climate change disrupts the habitat and food sources of the apex predator.
The deadly Aug. 7 attack occurred on Brevoort Island, the site of a North American air defense radar station. Nasittuq, the company that operates the station, says employees killed one of the bears involved in the attack.
Despite the estimated 17,000 polar bears in Canada, fatal encounters are rare. Still, the attack shocked a region well-acquainted with polar bears.
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“When I heard what happened to that technician, I was shocked,” said Ussak, who saw a mother and her cub in the same area just days after his encounter with the bear in early August. He and a friend successfully chased the pair away.
“We used to hardly see any polar bears here. But now we’ve had at least two in the last few weeks. It feels like there are more bears in that area – and they don’t seem to be afraid of people.”
Andrew Derocher, a biology professor at the University of Alberta, said the Brevoort Island assault was “unusual” given the location and the fact that two bears were involved. While details are scarce, he suspects it was likely a “wrong place, wrong time” encounter.
“The reality is that polar bears are unpredictable, even in the best of times,” Derocher said. “And with all the environmental changes we’re seeing, they’re becoming even more unpredictable.”
Across the region, sea ice will play a critical role in the future outlook for polar bears, including where they’re seen and how well they’re fed. Some populations experienced near-record low ice this summer, while other bears, such as the western Hudson Bay population, had “excellent” ice cover. But even extensive ice cover isn’t enough: Much of the bay had thick ice but lacked ridges and snow cover, making it a poor breeding ground for ringed seals, a key prey item for polar bears. Shifts in seal populations will put enormous pressure on bears to find enough food.
“In the 80s, polar bears looked like giant, fat sausages lying on the beach in the summer. But now we’re seeing a population that is generally much leaner. And I suspect that as food becomes more challenging … they’re going to start [human] communities. Are those communities ready? Absolutely not. A handful have small polar bear patrol programs, but most have nothing at all,” Derocher said. “Given the rarity of sightings, it’s understandable. It’s hard to have a team of polar bear people on standby for a few bears a year that come through at unpredictable times.”
Yet Derocher says that instead of preparing for more encounters, the main debate in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories often revolves around ensuring the annual hunt remains sustainable. For residents, a polar bear tag can be financially lucrative, with territorial governments spending thousands of dollars in subsidies for pelts. Scientists and residents have also clashed over population numbers, with increased hunter sightings suggesting the populations are growing.
“As people focus on hunting, I hear more and more communities saying, ‘We have open dumps here that attract polar bears into our towns. We need help with our trash. We have polar bears coming into our communities in the middle of winter and the middle of summer. We need help.'”
Derocher suspects the Rankin Inlet bears, which were chased away by Ussak, appeared in the community because of a change in summer ice patterns, which attracted the bears further north than normal.
“The reality is that these encounters are going to increase over time and it’s going to get a lot worse. But then it’s going to get better because as sad as it is, the population is going to start to disappear,” Derocher said. “This population of bears is not expected to last beyond the middle of the century. So fewer and fewer bears means that the problems in places like Rankin Inlet are limited.”
