- Polar Bears & Conservation
- Climate Change
- Pollution
- Drilling and Mining
- Hunting
- Other Human Interactions
- About the Polar Bear
- Polar Bear Cubs
- Polar Bear I.Q.
- Polar Bear Fur
- The Sea Bear
- More Facts
- Adaptions to Cold
- Communication
- Polar Bear Prey
- Home Range
- Bears in Motion
- Inuit & Polar Bears
- Bear Attacks
- Polar Bears in Zoos
- Myths & Misconceptions
- Hunting Seals
- Hibernation Facts
- Bathing Habits
- Sleepy Bears
- Name That Bear!
- Walking and Running
- Feasting Bears
- Polar Bear Evolution

Other Human Interactions

Indigenous people have lived in the arctic regions for thousands of years, hunting polar bears for meat, hides, and glory. In the 19th and 20th centuries, explorers and settlers from developed countries arrived to build settlements such as Churchill, Spitzbergen, Griese Fjord, or Prudhoe Bay so as to extract natural resources or to establish a political presence. In the future, population growth in the Arctic is expected to grow.

From time to time, during springtime thawing of sea ice, a polar bear may ride an ice floe down to the northern reaches of Iceland, Labrador, or the Pribilof Islands. But such events are uncommon. Better known are the fall arrival of some of the Hudson Bay population of polar bears to the vicinity of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. There, residents anticipate the presence of bears and take measures to protect both the people and the animals from harmful interaction.

For the major oil and gas fields developed along Alaska's North Slope, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires industry to have permits and observe regulations that establish safe working practices. Sightings of polar bears are not common.

Ecotourism brings thousands of visitors to Churchill each year, where scores of polar bears await the arrival of winter freezing of Hudson Bay. Limitations placed on the number of vehicles that can travel to seaside areas, where polar bears concentrate, ameliorate disturbing activity. Studies (sponsored by PBI) are presently underway to establish what affect, if any, human activities may have on polar bears.

Attacks on humans by polar bears seldom occur, and human fatalities are rare. For example, the death in 1999 of a Baker Lake, Nunavut, woman following an attack by a polar bear was the first in 25 years.

Visitors to the Arctic should heed the advice of Inuit elders, who believe that polar bears can hear a person's thoughts. "Don't think ill of the bears," they warn, "for that might make them angry."

Additional german informations can be found here.

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