Living with Polar Bears
Page 3 of 7
Bruemmer: It was bleak because it didn’t seem to have a future. But in Canada, sure you had to work in the mine and this and that, but if you wanted to, you could do anything you were capable of doing. The same as the States.
PBI: At what point did you get involved with polar bears? What brought that about?
Bruemmer: I got involved because I met someone who was studying them. This goes back to the 1960s. Between my trips with the Inuit, I also did trips with biologists. And the first one was with caribou—that was the beginning of studying caribou in the Canadian Arctic; that would be about '65 or '64.
PBI: Why were you along, to take photos?
Bruemmer: For myself, to take pictures and to take notes. But to justify my existence, I also worked as an unpaid assistant. We were capturing caribou and tagging animals and this sort of thing. So basically you needed somebody who could run pretty fast and who would happily work seven days a week and not complain, and who didn’t cost anything. But on the other hand it gave me a chance to photograph things, and they would pay for my flight up and back. So that made a lot of things possible because travel in the Arctic back then was extremely complicated.
PBI: Tell me a little more about that. I think it’s difficult enough, and I can’t imagine 40 years ago.
Bruemmer: 40 to 50 years ago there were a few airlines that flew already to Baffin Island, and Churchill had an airport. But many places you could only reach by ship or by rail, and then once you were there, to get away from it you needed to charter an aircraft. It was very, very difficult and very costly, so you could only go with government biologists or somebody like that.
PBI: So when you went on these caribou-studying expeditions, was that the first time you had seen polar bears?
Bruemmer: No, I didn’t see polar bears. But it was with Canadian Wildlife Service—Ian Stirling works with them. They were just beginning their Canadian Arctic wildlife studies, and one of the biologists who started at the same time was Charles Jonkel. He started polar bear studies in Canada, or polar bear studies, period. CWS hired him to study polar bears and because of the caribou study I already knew biologists there, and they said, that’s the guy you should go with. Obviously, going with polar bears was a lot more thrilling than going with caribou!
PBI: And where was it that you first went with him?
Bruemmer: It was Hudson Bay, but it was a place called Coats Island, in northern Hudson Bay. Those were the days we built snare traps—this was all done on foot. We built snare traps and trap lines, and baited the traps and then patrolled them.
PBI: How do snare traps work?
Bruemmer: A snare trap is basically a steel cable that, as the bear puts his paw onto a pad in order to reach into the trap, the trap flips up and the cable flies up around his foot. And the bear jumps back and then he pulls the snare tight. The snare itself was attached to huge 45-gallon drums, filled with rocks, to make probably half a ton or so of drag. And the bears would fight that pretty hard at first, and then would be very philosophical about it, Once they figured they couldn’t get out, they would just sit there. We would come with our tranquilizing gun, tranquilize the bear, weigh and measure the bear, take out the premolar—you can age the animal by that—and then tattoo the lower lip, tag the ear, and take fat samples because already then there was worry about lead and mercury. Even back then. That would be deposited in the polar bear’s fat. And blood samples... in the States and Canada they were interested in blood samples, because nobody had done work on polar bears. Up to then it had been all observation of polar bears but just simply killing them. Early studies in the 20s, 30s, 40s, they just basically shot the bear, weighed it and maybe skinned it, and maybe sent the skin to a museum. The idea of capturing them alive only became possible once you could tranquilize them. Before that, even if you caught one alive, then what?
PBI: When you set these snare traps, then what? Their sense of smell is so good, I would imagine you can’t be anywhere near those.
Bruemmer: Oh no. Nobody had ever trapped a bear, so the bears were relatively... they were not used to humans, and they didn’t expect much evil from anybody either. So we had our tent and we had a trap line with a daily walk of 25 miles or so. So we’d set the traps and then patrol them.
PBI: So if you encountered a bear back in those days, when they didn’t know humans to be a danger, how would you deal with them?
Bruemmer: Avoid them! Charles Jonkel and his student assistant both carried guns. I don’t like to carry guns so I never carried a gun. And the basic rule is, you carry binoculars, and before you start marching up and down the coast, you looked. If you saw a bear you didn’t march up there; you avoided it. If the bear marched up to you, you made yourself as visible as possible. And also walked around so he could smell you. Bears don’t see all that well; they’re very curious, and this is a big problem with bears. They’re extremely curious. I’ve had bears come up to ten feet because they didn’t know what I was. And at the same time, they were not hostile. You can tell a hostile bear; there’s no question about it. A hostile bear signals hostility. After working with bears for so long—I did it for 17 years—you get to know bear behavior very well. They’re very fascinating; in a way, they talk.
PBI: When that one came so close to you because it was curious, tell me what happened.
Bruemmer: The usual thing; this is not the only time it happened. What you do is you very, very slowly... you don’t look at the bear directly because that’s a hostile thing—you very carefully and very slowly back up. The bear had seen me and he kept coming towards me, and I stood on a rock and hoped he would go away. But he didn’t. And then I just talked to him and backed up, talked to him and backed up, talked to him and backed up. But always slowly. If you run, then of course, you become prey.
PBI: So you were looking at the ground rather than at him?
Bruemmer: (chuckle) No, I was looking at him, but not directly at his eyes. He would see it as a challenge. That’s not something that I advocate—I don’t think anybody should walk without a gun. But I did it for 17 years and nothing ever happened.
PBI: But others in your party had guns...
PBI: At what point did you get involved with polar bears? What brought that about?
Bruemmer: I got involved because I met someone who was studying them. This goes back to the 1960s. Between my trips with the Inuit, I also did trips with biologists. And the first one was with caribou—that was the beginning of studying caribou in the Canadian Arctic; that would be about '65 or '64.
PBI: Why were you along, to take photos?
Bruemmer: For myself, to take pictures and to take notes. But to justify my existence, I also worked as an unpaid assistant. We were capturing caribou and tagging animals and this sort of thing. So basically you needed somebody who could run pretty fast and who would happily work seven days a week and not complain, and who didn’t cost anything. But on the other hand it gave me a chance to photograph things, and they would pay for my flight up and back. So that made a lot of things possible because travel in the Arctic back then was extremely complicated.
PBI: Tell me a little more about that. I think it’s difficult enough, and I can’t imagine 40 years ago.
Bruemmer: 40 to 50 years ago there were a few airlines that flew already to Baffin Island, and Churchill had an airport. But many places you could only reach by ship or by rail, and then once you were there, to get away from it you needed to charter an aircraft. It was very, very difficult and very costly, so you could only go with government biologists or somebody like that.
PBI: So when you went on these caribou-studying expeditions, was that the first time you had seen polar bears?
Bruemmer: No, I didn’t see polar bears. But it was with Canadian Wildlife Service—Ian Stirling works with them. They were just beginning their Canadian Arctic wildlife studies, and one of the biologists who started at the same time was Charles Jonkel. He started polar bear studies in Canada, or polar bear studies, period. CWS hired him to study polar bears and because of the caribou study I already knew biologists there, and they said, that’s the guy you should go with. Obviously, going with polar bears was a lot more thrilling than going with caribou!
PBI: And where was it that you first went with him?
Bruemmer: It was Hudson Bay, but it was a place called Coats Island, in northern Hudson Bay. Those were the days we built snare traps—this was all done on foot. We built snare traps and trap lines, and baited the traps and then patrolled them.
PBI: How do snare traps work?
Bruemmer: A snare trap is basically a steel cable that, as the bear puts his paw onto a pad in order to reach into the trap, the trap flips up and the cable flies up around his foot. And the bear jumps back and then he pulls the snare tight. The snare itself was attached to huge 45-gallon drums, filled with rocks, to make probably half a ton or so of drag. And the bears would fight that pretty hard at first, and then would be very philosophical about it, Once they figured they couldn’t get out, they would just sit there. We would come with our tranquilizing gun, tranquilize the bear, weigh and measure the bear, take out the premolar—you can age the animal by that—and then tattoo the lower lip, tag the ear, and take fat samples because already then there was worry about lead and mercury. Even back then. That would be deposited in the polar bear’s fat. And blood samples... in the States and Canada they were interested in blood samples, because nobody had done work on polar bears. Up to then it had been all observation of polar bears but just simply killing them. Early studies in the 20s, 30s, 40s, they just basically shot the bear, weighed it and maybe skinned it, and maybe sent the skin to a museum. The idea of capturing them alive only became possible once you could tranquilize them. Before that, even if you caught one alive, then what?
PBI: When you set these snare traps, then what? Their sense of smell is so good, I would imagine you can’t be anywhere near those.
Bruemmer: Oh no. Nobody had ever trapped a bear, so the bears were relatively... they were not used to humans, and they didn’t expect much evil from anybody either. So we had our tent and we had a trap line with a daily walk of 25 miles or so. So we’d set the traps and then patrol them.
PBI: So if you encountered a bear back in those days, when they didn’t know humans to be a danger, how would you deal with them?
Bruemmer: Avoid them! Charles Jonkel and his student assistant both carried guns. I don’t like to carry guns so I never carried a gun. And the basic rule is, you carry binoculars, and before you start marching up and down the coast, you looked. If you saw a bear you didn’t march up there; you avoided it. If the bear marched up to you, you made yourself as visible as possible. And also walked around so he could smell you. Bears don’t see all that well; they’re very curious, and this is a big problem with bears. They’re extremely curious. I’ve had bears come up to ten feet because they didn’t know what I was. And at the same time, they were not hostile. You can tell a hostile bear; there’s no question about it. A hostile bear signals hostility. After working with bears for so long—I did it for 17 years—you get to know bear behavior very well. They’re very fascinating; in a way, they talk.
PBI: When that one came so close to you because it was curious, tell me what happened.
Bruemmer: The usual thing; this is not the only time it happened. What you do is you very, very slowly... you don’t look at the bear directly because that’s a hostile thing—you very carefully and very slowly back up. The bear had seen me and he kept coming towards me, and I stood on a rock and hoped he would go away. But he didn’t. And then I just talked to him and backed up, talked to him and backed up, talked to him and backed up. But always slowly. If you run, then of course, you become prey.
PBI: So you were looking at the ground rather than at him?
Bruemmer: (chuckle) No, I was looking at him, but not directly at his eyes. He would see it as a challenge. That’s not something that I advocate—I don’t think anybody should walk without a gun. But I did it for 17 years and nothing ever happened.
PBI: But others in your party had guns...