"There are more deadly predators than people..." The remote town where 1,000 giant, 600kg killers rule

Polar bears are solitary animals and the Arctic sea ice is their home. Their range includes Alaska in the USA, Canada, Greenland, Russia and Svalbard in Norway, and they are superbly adapted to the Arctic ecosystem.

With their sea-ice habitat continually moving – expanding in winter and retreating in summer – polar bears have become natural nomads, travelling hundreds of kilometres in search of calorie-rich seals to power their huge bodies.

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Their plodding pace averages 5–6kmph and a walking bear uses 13 times more energy than a resting bear, so it’s little wonder they prefer to wait patiently on a platform of ice for a seal to surface at a breathing hole.

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Aside from mating and breeding season, polar bear paths may cross if there is something worth sticking around for – a beached whale carcass, for example – but once the food is gone, so are they, back to their solo adventures.

But there are places where polar bears converge in their hundreds, with the world’s largest gathering around the small town of Churchill in Manitoba, Canada. Churchill is on the bears’ migratory path, as it’s the first place where the Hudson Bay freezes over.

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Every year, between October and November, up to 1,000 polar bears assemble near the shore (often outnumbering Churchill’s 871 residents), waiting for the drop in temperature that will deliver the sea ice they need to survive. That is more predators than the town's residents.

This massive congregation draws wildlife followers, researchers and photographers from around the world, flying in or taking the train to this remote Canadian outpost and the annual event has turned Churchill into the polar-bear capital of the world.

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Coming in a close second is rugged Wrangel Island, a protected area, roughly the size of Crete, off the northern coast of Siberia in mainland Russia. Each summer, a large proportion of the Chukchi sea population of polar bears comes ashore to rest until the ocean refreezes.

The island is also a prime denning site for pregnant females, with up to 500 arriving each winter to dig themselves into dens and give birth. Wrangel Island is known as the Arctic’s ‘polar bear maternity ward’ and the families remain in the dens until spring. 

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Climate change is the number one threat to polar bears. As the Arctic continues to warm and the sea ice retreats, they face longer ice-free periods and longer fasts, straining the limits of their fat reserves. The longer the bears remain on land, the longer they’re fasting. Even healthy populations will become stressed as sea-ice loss continues, with a greater likelihood of human-animal conflict and a subsequent decline in numbers. 

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Top image: Adam Wang / Getty