Bear with cubs spotted near Rankin Inlet

A mother polar bear and two cubs were scared off Sunday after being spotted near Rankin Inlet’s boat launch area.

The bears were resting near Tatty’s Cove, about two kilometres east of the hamlet, said Rankin Inlet resident Lester Kanayok in Facebook message to Nunatsiaq News.

He spotted the bears early Sunday afternoon.

The area is busy with commercial and private boats, so the bears were only there for a few hours before one of the boats scared them off and “made sure they don’t come back close to town,” Kanayok said.

A representative for the Kangiqliniq Hunters and Trappers Organization declined to comment, but said there are no plans to hunt the animals as hunters generally don’t harvest polar bears with cubs.

Bears are occasional visitors to the Kivalliq community as they are becoming less “scared” of humans, Donna Adams, manager with Rankin Inlet’s hunters and trappers organization, told Nunatsiaq News last year after a polar bear roamed around Rankin Inlet for days before being shot.

In 2022, in Rankin Inlet, one polar bear walked into town and came face to face with a woman. She narrowly escaped the animal by climbing inside a truck.

Grizzly bears are also a more frequent sighting in recent years, with hunters killing one just outside Rankin Inlet in July.