Bear Lore

Joan's true bear encounters

Joan, A True Northern Woman, Shared Many Fascinating Bear Stories with Me.

Joan, who used to work at the CNSC as housekeeper, told me about a woman of her acquaintance who, one day while out hiking, realized that she was being followed by a bear. She did not have a car or anything else nearby. She was in an area that had no trees. Lucky for her there was an abandoned house. She got to it and somehow climbed up onto the roof and waited out the bear. Eventually he lost interest and went away.


Joan, too, experienced a polar bear's rather rude curiosity.

The Centre is located right smack in the Cape Churchill Wildlife Management Area. Because sometimes the place gets very busy with onsite programs (and probably also to offer a place to stay during blizzards, etc.) all employees have their own room at the Centre. One night--even though she has her own apartment in town--she had stayed over. Joan's room is on the 2nd floor, glassed in but without the bear bars that protect all windows on the first floor. That following morning, she had been brushing her hair when she got a really creepy feeling that she was being watched. She turned around. A polar bear was staring at her through the window. He had climbed a snowdrift onto the roof that extends out between the 1st and 2nd floor.

She was the one who mentioned that one day, someone walked into the kitchen and saw a polar bear nosing around the food preparation area. Somehow it had gotten inside. This is not a situation anyone welcomes. I have heard that one of the problems of a bear getting in is that he does not go out the same way, and that people have lost walls. I don't know how they got the bear out.

Go to Quentin's Adventure

Return to Bear Lore

Return to Reasons to visit

Return to Churchill, Canada