Welcome to the polar bear capital of the world: ‘It’s kind of epic’
In Churchill, Canada, polar bears gather by the hundreds in the fall, waiting for the nearby bay to freeze. The human residents live prepared for the unexpected.
Churchill, CanadaOn a cold November morning in the subarctic Canadian town of Churchill, Manitoba, Ian Van Nest sits in the warmth of his SUV and peers through binoculars at a pair of polar bears wandering along the icy shoreline. They are far enough away to not raise particular concern but every one of their large strides is bringing them closer to the community, and Van Nest knows that he might soon have to do something about it.
Van Nest is Churchill’s conservation officer, and for several weeks each year, keeping polar bears and people away from each other is his primary occupation. That’s because Churchill, a town of roughly 800 year-round residents on the
