Welcome To "The Polar Bear Capital of the World"Part 1

Overview
Recently in October, two Louisville Zoo staff members (Education Curator Marcelle Gianelloni and Public Relations Manager Kara Bussabarger) along with Louisville Zoo teen volunteers Emily Goldstein and Brandie Farkas traveled to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada on an all-expense paid trip courtesy of Polar Bears International. [For more information on how they got to go, check out http://www.louisvillezoo.org/projectpolarbear/award.htm.]

By Kara Bussabarger, Zoo PR Manager
Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, is located on the shores of Hudson Bay, and was given the name “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” because it’s the largest concentration of polar bears in the world at one time. During the peak polar bear season in early October through November, more than 1,000 polar bears congregate around the shores of the Hudson Bay as they wait for the ice to freeze so they can begin their hunting season.

Churchill was once a military base for United States and Canada and is now a small town of about 800 residents. The economy is based on a number of thriving sectors such as mining, transportation, forestry, commercial fishing, trapping and tourism. Prince of Wales Fort, built in the mid 1700s by the Hudson Bay Company, sits just across the river, a solid reminder of the fur trade which first put Churchill on the map.

When you visit Churchill, you should be aware that a polar bear may be encountered anywhere at any time of the year. There are “Polar Bear ALERT” signs posted around town as well as a special polar bear alert phone line (675-BEAR) for sightings. Conservation officers first try to scare off any bears that wander into town, usually with ear-piercing cracker shells although sometimes rubber bullets are used. When that doesn’t work, the bears are trapped using a bear trap (a large metal cylinder baited with seal meat or oil) and are detained in the Polar Bear Compound at the edge of town for up to 30 days or until the ice on the Bay has frozen over. The Compound contains 28 holding areas and bears are isolated from people to avoid a familiarity and dependence on humans. While the Louisville Zoo group was in Churchill, the Compound housed about 16 bears. One was even caught wandering the town while they were there!

Early one morning, Zoo staff members Marcelle Gianelloni and I walked to the post office to mail postcards back home. Later that morning at breakfast, we were told a polar bear had been caught in the street next to the post office—just a few minutes after we had left. It was an almost “too-close encounter!”

Did you know that the Zoo’s upcoming Glacier Run exhibit is loosely modeled after Churchill? Glacier Run is an imaginary mining town located at the edge of the arctic wilderness where Zoo visitors will become immersed and actively involved in the exhibit experience. The seal and sea lion habitat are scheduled to open in 2010 with the polar bear habitat slated to open in 2011.