Churchill polar bears headed to zoo

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/12/2017 (3089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two orphaned polar bear cubs will soon join the exodus of Churchill residents headed south.

The province is set to move the cubs, each about 11 months old and from different mothers, south to Winnipeg tonight. Residents reported seeing shipping crates and conservation staff Monday in the northern Manitoba town.

The bears are set to be sent to the Assiniboine Park Zoo’s international polar bear conservancy.

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence had asked the province to let the two cubs remain in the world’s “polar bear capital,” saying too many of them have been sent to southern zoos.

“It has always been an issue here,” Spence told the Free Press on Sunday. “We want to get more research on polar bears. We need to do things differently.”

He asked Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires to consider instead putting tracking devices on cubs and bears to see where they go and even building a facility to gradually reintroduce bears into the wild.

Squires previously said the cubs have a small chance of survival without their mother.

Last year, observers in Churchill recorded more than 350 polar bear encounters. Researchers say the town on the shore of Hudson Bay has a stable amount of polar bears, though there have been concerns about the animals’ physical health.

At least two dozen human residents of Churchill (population 900) have moved south due to rising living costs and job losses since rail service was interrupted by track washouts in May. The federal government recently increased an economic-development fund aimed at branching out the town’s tourism-reliant economy.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca