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The Polar Bear Jail
— By Jeremy Covert
Vulnerable Animals Going to Jail?
Did you know polar bears can go to jail? Don’t worry, it’s for a good reason. They are not in for long. And it just might save their life…
Located very close to the airport and just a few minutes from downtown Churchill, Manitoba. The “Bear Jail”, as it is known locally is more appropriately called the ‘Polar Bear Holding Facility’ by local managers, guides, politically correct visitors and members of the government. But to most--it is the ‘bear Jail’.
The Polar Bear Holding Facillity. A.K.A. ‘The Bear Jail’
This modest old building from a former military base has housed dozens of polar bears each fall. Keeping the bears, local residents and their pets safe.
Determining how to handle wildlife and human interaction can be quite difficult with any species. The ‘bear jail’ has been the best option since bear numbers in the area have continued to rise from the 70’s to present day.
Street side view. What visitors see as they leave the airport.
A modest sign hangs on the front and back of the building.
This is not just a place for the few bears who break into food stores in the area or are suspected of eating the seats off of snowmobiles. These are bears who wonder into town or anywhere people frequent in the area and either stay put or become a nuisance trying to get trash. These polar bear ‘fugitives’ are ‘jailed’ for their own safety--and for ours! Additionally for the safety of the communities pets and for every visitors peace of mind.
Every effort is taken to simply scare the bears out of town. But some return within hours and linger indefinitely. These ‘Problem bears’ are identified, large traps are baited and set. And new ‘inmates’ are checked in usually starting in early October until the end of November.
Trapped bears are collected, weighed and kept in holding cells which may remind some of prisons found in developing countries. Barren cement walls, heavy duty bars, and smooth concrete floors are the ambience. Mothers with cubs are given the luxury suite which consists of a canvas style bed. All inmates are fed a steady diet of snow. No food, just snow or water. It sounds cruel. But this is for their own safety. Because at this time of the year in this part of the world, snow is about all there is to eat! If the bears are fed any food, they would be lining up to check into this cinderblock resort every year. And there would be no shortage of takers. For Churchill, Manitoba and it’s surrounding areas are the “Polar Bear Viewing Capital of the World”. They amass in this area every fall in large numbers, and some have even started hanging out during the hot and buggy summers (hot only if you are a polar bear)...
A Penthouse Suite with a bed reserved for a mother and cubs. Quite luxurious indeed...
The Bear Jail is a fascinating place to visit. It smells vaguely of cool cement and straw. It is very still inside. Even if people are touring it. Everyone is quiet, like in a church. Everyone, I imagine, is just thinking about all of the bears who have stayed in these cells.
Churchill, Manitoba and it’s surrounding areas are the “Polar Bear Viewing Capital of the World”. The bears congregate in this specific area for several reasons. The Churchill River, with its many tributaries, dumps a massive amount of freshwater in the Hudson Bay (some beginning in small creeks in the Rockies) This freshwater sits high in the salty bay. There is also a counter clockwise current in the Bay which causes cold freshwater and ice to collect on the small jetty-like land mass which makes up the area known as Churchill. Because of this it begins to freeze before other areas of the Bay. Once Ice has formed this causes the local seal population to congregate and utilize breathing holes in the ice. And that gives these beautiful white bears the edge they need to harvest their mainstay: ringed seals.
The usually solitary polar bear can be quite social and hilariously entertaining. Visitors safely watch from custom vehicles traversing a series of roads on a remote section of the Hudson Bay Coastline outside of Churchill, Manitoba.
This inquisitive female circled our vehicle for 15 minutes. She looked at every single one of us in the eye!
She seemed to be just as entertained by us as we were by her.
The bears wait for the ice to form on the Huson Bay as a hunting platform. And that gives these beautiful white bears the edge they need to harvest their mainstay: ringed seals.
You can see them making kills within spotting scope distance of shore within days of the collection of ice before the entire Bay even freezes over. And once it does freeze, these majestic animals will not touch dry land for months. Not until the ice begins to break up and they head for shore and starvation. And this is when they end up in the Churchill area. Bored, moping around, hungry, scared of the bigger bears and us. Actually, they are apprehensive of us. But they are also very curious. You would have to be to survive in these harsh climates. Exploring and tasting every single object in your world to see if it can provide the much needed calories or vitamins they are all so desperate for to survive.
Throughout most of the year the bears are distributed along the coast and the nearby Wapusk National Park. Its during the fall, and the cold weather that brings them into the Churchill area in unbelievable numbers. Photographers, and bear enthusiasts flock to this mecca of the polar bear viewing in October and November. They mostly book a ride on massive school buses fitted with monster truck tires, heaters, indoor bathrooms and catered meals. The small town’s hotels, restaurants and guide services are sold out during this time of year. All to see these majestic bears up close and personal in their natural habitat. The town is even seeing an influx of visitors in the summer now. And not just for polar bears. It is also a beautiful floral rare bird lovers paradise. And it is also a great place to get up close and personal--and even in the water with beluga whales. A thrill and a once in a lifetime experience. The belugas are not dangerous--and there is no jail for them, although there used to be a commercial processing plant there which harvested them...but that, and nearly every other industry have dried up long ago; including the military, leaving a massive community center and aging buildings. Tourism is the chief industry in the area now. Including polar bear viewing, flower hunting, birding, beluga whale tours and an entire winter season of northern lights viewing. There are climate controlled domes scattered throughout the surrounding areas dedicated to watching and photographing aurora borealis. It is a strange and otherworldly place. A place where some people still use dog sleds! These are some of the best and most interesting people you will meet in your entire life. I suppose you have to be if you live off the land and raise a few dozen dogs which you love like your own children…
Dog Sledding
I never understood what dog sledding was all about until I saw these mushers and their dogs. The bond is indescribable. And the dogs are some of the happiest you will ever meet in your life.
After sparring for several hours off and on these bears showed their true feelings for one another.
The “Polar Bear Jail.”
— Churchill, Manitoba
It is a flat desolate landscape where the bear jail sits. A Quonset hut style building left over from the military base which was there until 1968. The Holding Facility was started after a townsperson was mauled in the early 80’s.
The feel of the parking lot and immediate surrounding area are of a reverence more like a church rather than a penitentiary. Because you know what is inside--who is inside. On the more public side is a hundred foot long locally painted image of a polar bear sleeping. The other side has only the cute and stylized sign depicting a mom and cubs. This is the entrance most use. Employees and visitors. You of course are NOT allowed to visit when bears are present. Only after the last troublemakers are released do they occasionally open the building up for locals and visitors to view. It is a special event. Even the locals come check it out--and ALL the bear enthusiasts!
When you approach and enter you notice a large steal cage surrounds the inside of the door. This is because an employee opened the door to the facility one day to find a large male polar bear had broken in! to the bear jail and was roaming around freely investigating food smells in the building. That and the fear of an unlikely escape of an already incarcerated bear prompted the steal cage being installed.
Jail Break!!!
This steel cage had to be added when a facility employee arrived one day to find a polar bear roaming the inside of the building. A bear had actually BROKEN IN! to the prison!
A ranging bear had smelled bears and bait inside the facility and made its way in though a window covered with plywood.
Although not technically a ‘jail break’, it was definitely an exciting moment for facility employees. Needless to say the steel cage for the entrance was a good idea.
If you were to enter when bears are being cared for you would not hear any noise inside. The facilities employees make little noise to keep the bears as calm as possible. Each ‘cell’ is completely closed off with bars and a large metal plate to keep bears from seeing each other and getting agitated. The bears are fed snow through openings in the cell. A network of platforms above the bear’s cells allows employees to be able to visually monitor each bears demeanor and health.
The average stay is 20-30 days depending on the health of the bear and the number of occupants in the facility. A bear being released is a very special event for the entire town, visiting photographers and bear-ophyles. The onlookers line up on the road just outside the facility and watch a fully sedated bear pulled out of the facility with a motor vehicle and trailer. The bear is placed in a net and hooked to the bottom of a helicopter which arrives at this predetermined time. And the lucky crowd of a few dozen up to a few hundred watch one of the most majestic creatures of the entire animal kingdom gently get picked up and whisked away 20 plus miles north, to gently be set down and a wildlife biologist babysits it until the sedative wears off at which time they and their guards run back to the chopper to return to the Churchill area. Each released bear is painted with a large neon green spot on its side. This is so they can be tracked to know if they were a recent release. It is rare that the bears make it back down to Churchill in the same season. Some bears have even been fitted with ear marker tags. These perhaps, are the real trouble making bears local bear patrol is keeping a watch out for. The other possible release scenario is after the ice has come in and all bears are leaving the mainland, a bear will be driven down to a remote shoreline where they are released to the sound of gasping tourists and onlookers. These are rare and special things to get to see.
The landscape that these bears live, love and thrive in is nearly unimaginable to 90% of the human population. A desolation and coldness most cannot ever imagine and fewer would want to endure. It is the edge of the forest and anything other than a small shrub: the edge of the Arctic Circle. And it’s reputation as a cold and inhospitable place is rightly deserved. The strong winds blowing off the Hudson Bay pelt you with a thousand tiny salty daggers. A perpetual horizontal rain or sleet. It disfigures trees, buildings, cars, signs, and the landscape itself. The exposure to these elements I will not describe as “cold”. I think, and most agree, it just feels like generalized full body pain—with any exposed pieces of skin feeling like they are too close to a blowtorch. But with proper gear and the right tour company you only experience as much of this as you want. It is a good place to visit. It makes wherever you call home that much more comfortable when you think back about your unbelievable tour of this spectacular landscape. Often, when I am living in the states, someone tells me, “It’s going to be cold tonight, watch out!” I think of Churchill and smile, and say, “I think I’ll be alright…”
And those are the places you want to visit in your life. Safely visiting a place that changes your view of the world: destinations of true and unparalleled adventure. Places where all the wild animals that are supposed to be there are still there! A place where they have to lock up polar bears for their (and our!) safety! True wilderness heals us in ways we barely understand. This process is our birthright. Seek it out when ever and where ever you can. Just make sure you are safe!
When people ask me what Churchill is like, I always say the same thing: “Visiting Churchill is like going to a different world. With unbelievable weather, landscapes, animals, stories and characters straight out of a fantastical novel. And there are polar bears walking around everywhere! You have to go!”
A bear waits for the Hudson Bay to freeze on small freshwater ponds just outside of Churchill. They seem to me to prefer hanging out on these frozen ponds more than on solid ground. A testament to how much they love ice and are at home on it throughout a good portion of the year—for now...
Below, a big male who has most likely been a visitor to the bear jail at some point in the past. ‘Problem bears’ may receive plastic tags in their ears to alert Holding Facility personal which specific individual they are dealing with.
And then he walked out onto the ice…
This big scary looking male emerged from the willows. The last bear of the season for our trip. It circled our rover. Sat like a dog staring at us for a while. And then he walked out onto the ice. Not to touch land for months. Hunting seals. Living in the Hudson Bay, under a permanent night sky, with unknown aurora borealis light shows.
Watching him walk out onto the ice on the back of the rover—all of us were silent.
It was a moving scene.
The Dawson Pitamakan Loop
One of the most stunning hikes I have ever seen.
Several miles of the Dawson Pitamakan Trail hike along the Continental Divide. From these ridge lines hikers get stunning vistas of the plains and surrounding rugged mountains.
Approaching the Continental Divide seen in the distance.
The hike gets beautiful very quickly almost from the trailhead. You can see the Continental Divide the entire time.
Overlooking Old Man Lake, just before summiting the ridge line is a great spot to take a break and enjoy a snack.
Looking down from the ridge line.
A truly mind blowing experience hiking on these thin ridge line trails surrounded by deep glacially carved valleys.
One of the things that makes this hike so special is you can look into several different glacially carved valleys at the same time from the thin knife like ridge line the trail follows. It is not ugly…
We encountered this roadblock just after descending from the Continental Divide. This stubborn moose refused to step off the trail. After a long wait we tried to walk around him. He charged down into the stream bed we were bushwhacking through. We quickly scrambled back up to the trail and were able to scurry by him. Moose are continually the most challenging animals to deal with in Glacier National Park.
Yellowstone National Park
A special place for bears, wolves, the last migrating herds of lower North America, wildlife, flowers, and some of the most spectacular thermal displays on the planet.
Yellowstone: America’s first National Park. It is a truly unique spectacle to behold. The animals, landscape, and thermal features are unparalleled.
My favorite Yellowstone Wolf: the White Female from the Wapiti Pack
On this crisp morning we arrived to find the watchers perched above a hill on the road looking down on the Wapitis. Nearby traffic and a crowd of civilians spooked the white female. As she got up, seen in the right hand side of these photos, several of the pack immediately joined her and followed her down the hill. Like puppies with their owner.
At the writing of this article this white wolf (a rare color morph) is the oldest known in the park.
The remaining pack slowly got up and followed.
Southwestern Adventures.
Oregon Pipe National Monument, Carlsbad Caverns and more.
Join me for another adventure soon!
I am constantly updating with new photos and stories. Check back when you are thirsty for adventure.
