Rare polar bear sighting draws hopeful hunters to Sylvia Grinnell park
RCMP block entrance to park, leaving wildlife officer to make the kill
A polar bear walks along the ridge near the entrance to Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park near Iqaluit on Tuesday evening. Wildlife officers shot the bear after it was reported. (Photo courtesy of Madeleine Akpalialuk)
A polar bear “as big as a Corolla” was shot and killed by wildlife officers in Iqaluit’s Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park Tuesday evening.
Miles Brewster arrives at Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park Tuesday evening in an amphibious SHERP vehicle, ready to hunt a polar bear. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Police blocked the park entrance after the bear was sighted at around 7:15 p.m., RCMP spokesperson Sgt. George Henrie said in an email on Wednesday morning.
“Shortly after receiving the call, about seven RCMP officers attended the location to assist Nunavut wildlife officers,” he said.
“RCMP were there to ensure the safety of the public and to evacuate the park.”
The bear was shot by wildlife officers about an hour later, RCMP officers at the scene said.
But that didn’t stop several hunters from coming down in hopes of nabbing the bear themselves.
Miles Brewster and a small group of young hunters showed up at the park gate in a SHERP, an amphibious all-terrain vehicle designed to traverse extreme environments.
He was hoping to shoot the bear but was stopped by the RCMP officers at the gate.
They had seen a Facebook post about the bear sighting.
“It should be the young Inuit hunters that should shoot it,” Brewster said, popping his head out the rugged vehicle’s sunroof.
“That would be the most ideal thing.”
Resident Michael Alexander also brought a crew of hunters, including an elder, but were also stopped at the gate.
Alexander said he watched the bear walk along the ridge near the park pavilion through his binoculars before wildlife officers killed the bear out of sight from Iqaluit Lane.
“It just looked like a big skinny bear,” Alexander said, adding its fur was muddy. “I was able to see the hip bones. We were going to go and take care of it.”
Alexander said he took issue that an elder from the community gave the men permission to hunt the bear, but the three RCMP officers standing at the park entrance did not.
“They’re even stopping our own elder,” Alexander said.
Dozens of others trickled past the park entrance hoping to view the bear, including five tourists from Ottawa.
Even an off-duty RCMP officer was drawn by the drama. Cpl. Erika Vekeman said she abandoned Game 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup final to catch a glimpse. She did.
Iqaluit hunter Michael Alexander scans the horizon for a polar bear Tuesday evening from the entrance to Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park. Wildlife officers shot the bear shortly after 8:30 p.m. (Photo by Daron Letts)
“When I got here, he was cresting the hill. He was just walking up and down the hill,” she said. “I don’t know polar bears, but they’re telling me that he’s about the size of a Corolla,” she said, referring to the model of a Toyota sedan.
It was resident Tina Akpalialuk-Anawak who alerted the community to the bear’s presence at 7:40 p.m. when she posted a photo on Facebook of the bear walking at the base of the ridge near the park pavilion.
Her sister captured the image, she said in a Facebook message.
“I was shaking too much to take a photo,” she told Nunatsiaq News.
At the time the bear was shot, it was on the ice, out of sight of the park entrance.
The last time a polar bear sighting was reported in Iqaluit was in February.
Representatives from the Nunavut Wildlife Office were not available for comment by press time.
Using a $150,000 SHERP to go “hunting” 🙄
REAL SHOW OFF !!!!
Very appropriate considering it was in an icy/ slushy area. They would have been in a better position to retrieve it than whoever shot it.
This has wrong all over it. It’s probably a young hungry bear. A good hunter knows how to chase them away and then monitor. Gosh and yes a sherp so dumb
Does it really matter if they go hunting on a $1000 skidoo or $150,000 Sherp? If it gets them to point a to point b, we shouldn’t really care. Instead of focusing on value of hunting equipment others have, just focus on yourself.
It depends on how you see it.
I just finished reading an article where Natan Obed rhymed off a long list of economic factors portraying the territory as the poorest part of Canada and demanding assistance from the Feds.
Then, I read an article where some young fellas see a FB post and somehow end up taking a ride on a $150k machine to check things out. Where else in the world would that happen?
It’s a little ironic.
Maybe ironic but this is anecdotal info about 1 among a few people with these types of resources. There are many people in Nunavut who live in poverty, incl. many kids. The one silly show off from Iqaluit does not reflect the many throughout all of Nunavut. And Iqalummiut have more access to jobs and $ than other communities in the Territory.
lol I mean one individual doesn’t really represent the whole population…
*Discharging a firearm is only legal if you are an Inuk harvesting for food, acting in an official capacity (such as a wildlife officer), or using it strictly for emergency defense against dangerous wildlife.*
Running down there to “take care of it” is neither “hunting” nor is it “defense.”
Only a wildlife officer has the legal authority to humanely euthanize a polar bear. This bear was sick and starving and it is highly likely that even if it was scared off it would return in search of food.
1 bear shows up and the rcmp, department of environment gang shows up? Did one of them shoot the bear and waste it?
So elders are above the law? I got permission from an elder to take it out?
I find it so annoying how Inuit think we all should just listen to elders and ignore everybody else. Common sense is thrown out the window but as long as they listen to the elders!
It is the Wildlife Officers job to keep the community safe. And only the authorities should be shooting within town boundaries if they have to. And they should be involved to push it away if that is the decision. If there is a strong support for the youth to harvest bears, get a tag and go do the full process. Hoping a bear walks into town so you can shoot it does not make you a hunter.
So what was done with the meat?
It was a starving, skinny bear so what little meat there was would not have been fit for consumption.
Is no one going to mention the size of the bear… a Corolla…. really. Unless I am mistaken a Corolla is a car. Quick Google search for the size of a Corolla is about 14 feet long. That is a BIG bear.
They need to mount that bear as it beats the previous world record (again google) of 11 feet.
Oh Wildlife nearby KILL IT!! After living in NU for over a decade I don’t tell a single sole if I see something within 50kms of town or else I know its just instantly dead.
Then you hear people around town always saying, there’s no caribou or muskox around anymore, you don’t see them anymore!
Wonder why.
The future is here, couldn’t they chase it away with like a drone equipped to fire rubber bullets at it eh?
Chasing away bears always leads to the bears getting shot. In smaller towns they chase the bears away but some of them like to keep returning after coming back 2 or 3 times from getting chased out. The wildlife officer could have chased it away but people were saying its thin and starving.
Good idea. You know anyone in Iqaluit who owns such a drone that could have been used that way? Other than, you know, being illegal?
Ahaha now is the good time to get that drone made for community bear deterrence. The bear keeps coming back, then it’ll get more shots to the butt, that is all, to be used by the wildlife officers.
Some years ago I witnessed wildlife officers shoot rubber bullets at a bear near the hamlet of Chesterfield Inlet in an attempt to scare it away. Unfortunately it looked like the bear didn’t even feel a thing and it had to be shot as it kept on moving closer to the hamlet / residences. Sad but necessary in some cases I guess.
Good thing they blocked off the park before every Tom Dick and Harry could start discharging firearms in every direction. When seals came close to town, it was like a free for all war zone💯
I understand there is a protocol for wildlife officials to deal with bears that wander into town First they try to steer bear away using non lethal means. Was this attempted or did they decide the bear has to be killed
It was super skinny and starving so officers humanely dispatched it.
Rare sighting? Nah
Iqaluit is very different from the rest of Nunavut where Inuit are less in control, this is a fine example of that, in other communities in Nunavut elders are given the chance to hunt the polar bear in these types of situations when quotas are available and in Iqaluit they have the quotas, yet the authorities in charge of course do not know this or respect this in Iqaluit. Too disconnected to Inuit culture.
A lot of decolonizing still needs to happen there, wing the capital of Nunavut but run by people not originally from Nunavut we have a lot of differences and the authority in Iqaluit is quite disconnected with Inuit. Yet a lot of the policies, guidelines, regulations for Nunavut are decided by the same people.
Slow down and think about this particular situation. Only RCMP or wildlife officers have the legal authority to discharge firearms around the vicinity of communities. This bear was very skinny and starving and it was a humane euthanization. Decolonization my a**
This seems to be the only case in Nunavut where southern authorities are the only ones who can catch/put down a bear in and around the vicinity of the community, every where else in Nunavut the HTO and community decides together who does this, and it is usually a elder who is picked to catch a bear as it’s right in town and the elder does not have to travel far, the elder knows how to catch the bear, wait for it to get on good ground.
Iqaluit is more southern in its ways where it becomes more complicated by design.
Alexander says it was a skinny bear? Could see the hips bones? Unless that picture is from another bear, the rounded hind quarters tell me different, looks healthy, but that is not a clear photo
Bear should have been allowed to live.
Tranquilize and relocate.
Why? The are not endangered and in fact have grown in population over the years and are getting to be too many.
This bear will feed a lot of people.
First of all thank you for the southerners entertaining us Inuit.
There are scientist who are in charge with the polar bears and have learn from few years of observation whereas we Inuit knows Polar Bears from many generations of observing and pass down that knowledge from some many generations so here i read all the non Inuit thinking what is for the best and who ever thinks the elders have no say or do not know what is the best way to act on such situation as this SHAME ON YOU!.
Quick Polar Bear 101
Polar bears do not need ice to survive and they are good hunter during summer as will as in winter.
Stop believing all the southerners Polar Bear experts shows where the polar bears are in danger due to global warming is all crap.