Bears Have Prisons, Too!
There is a bear prison in the northern Canadian town of Churchill. Photo: Collected
In the small Canadian town of Churchill, conservation officer Caser McLean received a phone call one morning. A polar bear had broken into a warehouse on the outskirts of the town. Upon arriving at the scene, they found a young female bear standing by the door, eating.
She had been wandering around the town for a few days in search of food. However, she had now realized that food could be found inside human dwellings—and that was exactly the problem. Once a bear identifies human homes as a food source, it will return repeatedly and may even break inside. Therefore, the decision was made immediately to tranquilize the bear and take her to a special prison designed specifically for polar bears.
You didn't hear that wrong. A prison for bears. The world's only polar bear jail is located right there in Churchill.
Tranquilizing a 500-pound bear is no easy feat. To capture her, an operation was launched from both the air and the ground. From a helicopter, McLean’s partner, Ian Van Nest, fired a sedative injection into the bear using a specialized gun. The medicine took only two minutes to work, but in that short time, the bear managed to pass out on high ground where no vehicle could reach. Eventually, seven people worked together to lift the animal onto a large board-like stretcher and load her into a truck. She was then transported to the Polar Bear Holding Facility.
(After spending two weeks in Churchill's polar bear jail, the young bear is being transported by helicopter while sedated, moved roughly 40 miles away from the town. Photo: Collected)
The town of Churchill is truly the realm of polar bears. Established in 1717 for the fur trade, this settlement is now known as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World." The town is situated on the shores of Hudson Bay, directly in the path bears use every year as they wait for the sea ice to freeze. There are only about 850 people living in this town, and the number of bears roaming the area is roughly the same. In winter, these bears hunt seals on the frozen ice of Hudson Bay. The trouble begins in July when the ice starts to melt. During this season, they have no prey to hunt. They survive primarily by burning stored body fat, but by the time November arrives, they become desperately hungry and raid human settlements in search of food.
To manage this situation, the Polar Bear Alert Program was established in Churchill. In the past, if a bear pawed at a window or tried to enter a home, it was often shot and killed. However, that mindset has changed. Today, only about 20,000 to 26,000 polar bears remain worldwide. As climate change causes ice to melt rapidly, their population is declining—a recent report shows a 27% decrease in their numbers over the last five years. Because sea ice is forming later each year, bears have less time to hunt. To protect both human lives and these animals, the "prison" system was created as a way to relocate bears safely instead of killing them.
The prison in Churchill was originally built in the 1950s as a military base. It is a massive hangar containing 28 cells. Each cell is constructed from solid cement blocks with roofs and doors made of reinforced steel. The structure is so robust that only the military could have built something of its kind. Five of these cells are even equipped with air conditioning to keep the bears comfortable during warmer days. While some bears are brought in via tranquilizers, others are lured into iron cage traps using seal meat as bait.
(On the wall of the former military hangar—now serving as the polar bear prison—is a mural of a resting bear. The facility houses a total of 28 cells, some of which are equipped with cooling systems to ensure the bears' comfort.)
Once the bear caught by McLean arrived at the facility, she was weighed and measured from nose to tail. A tag was placed on her ear, and a permanent tattoo was applied to her lip for future identification. Interestingly, the bears are not given any food during their stay in prison. This is intentional: scientists do not want the bears to associate humans with food. The goal is for the prison experience to be so boring and monotonous that the bears will want to avoid human contact in the future. They are only provided with water or snow to drink. Since they would naturally be fasting in the wild during this season, this lack of food isn't overly stressful for them; they simply spend their days lying on straw or wood shavings.
A bear’s "sentence" lasts for a maximum of 30 days, or until the ice on Hudson Bay finally freezes. When the sea water turns to ice, the release celebration begins. Many townspeople gather to witness the event. The bears are transported in cages to the icy shores and released one by one. Freed from captivity, the bears joyfully trek across the ice to begin their hunt. In 2022, five such bears were released, including the young female who had broken into the warehouse. She is now free in the wild, living her natural life and hunting seals once again. (Source: atlasobcura.com)
