It’s Just a Matter of Time Lessons from Agency and Community Responses to Polar Bear-inflicted Human Injury

• Published in: Conservation and society Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 64 - 75
• Main Authors: Schmidt, Aimee L., Clark, Douglas A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bangalore WOLTERS KLUWER INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED 01.01.2018; Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subjects: Administrative agencies; Canada; Churchill; Climate change; Communities; Community; community responses; Conflicts; Conservation biology; Conservation education; Decision making; Ecological research; Environmental aspects; Environmental conservation; Fatalities; Grizzly bears; Human-animal relationships; Injuries; Inuit; management responses; Manitoba; Natural resources conservation; Parks; Physical trauma; Polar bear; polar bear-human conflicts; Polar bears; Policies; Political science; Qualitative analysis; Retirement communities; Social aspects; Trends; Ursus; Ursus maritimus; Wildlife conservation; Wildlife management; Canada; New York; Manitoba Canada; United States > US; Arctic region; Saskatchewan Canada; Kansas; North America; Hudson Bay; polar bear-human conflicts; management responses; Canada; Churchill; Manitoba; community responses
• ISSN: 0972-4923; 0975-3133
• DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_16_94

Bear-inflicted human injuries or deaths are often widely publicised, controversial, and evoke substantial social responses that articulate public expectations about bear management. In this paper, we examine how local people and management agencies (i.e. Manitoba Conservation, Parks Canada, and the Town of Churchill) responded to a polar bear-inflicted human injury in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. On November 1st, 2013, two people in Churchill were badly mauled by a polar bear. The incident shocked the community, highlighted problems such as a lack of bear safety education, and led to reviews of institutional policies for preventing polar bear-human conflicts. We used qualitative analysis methods to describe what is said (about polar bears, about people, and about management) and what is done (changes in behaviours and changes in policies/practices) when someone is attacked by a polar bear in Churchill. Results show that polar bear management agencies in Churchill respond remarkably well to errors in procedure, but are often unable to address the many underlying systematic drivers of polar bear-human conflict. Hence, managerial reactions to bear-human conflicts are successful at addressing the proximate cause of the problem, but offer few long-term solutions.