Been looking into a P/B hunt in the NWT. Anyone been on this hunt willing to talk or comment? I'm aware of the US ban on importing the hide and a few other obsticles. Looking for another unusual adventure. thanks jeff~

That does sound like quite a undertaking.
Where have you done the research?

You're aware that the polar bears do not need a licence to hunt you, right, and that usually, the hunter becomes the hunted.

I have read years ago, that the polar bear is one of the few animals that will hunt man for food.

Isn't that part of the excitement of hunting them?

. . . . . . . . . . or of them hunting you? I suppose.

So, Brother Keith, are you saying, "Don't feed the bears"?

Nope. I am saying don't feed ME to the bears.

Nope go right ahead and feed the bears. No sweat off my nose. They make a grizzly look small so there is usually not much to claim to burry.

houston is not getting any overwhelming endorsement on the hunt.

He may however get an unusual adventure without leaving the forum.

I found an interesting article: http://www.huntingtipsandtricks.com/a/Polar_Bear_Hunting_

Who knew Canada has 60% of the world's polar bears?!

houston,as you pointed out the bigest obstical will be getting yer trophy back into the USA.
Up here the polar bear is to the white man as the eagle is to the red man,so you may find very little support on the north side of the fire.And also its a rich mans hunt likely in the ballpark of a hunt in Africa? And I think most of us cunuckians on here are blue collar gentlemen.

How can anyone endorse what they haven't done?

Jim

Rog, houston must feel like he met all of his blind date's ugly brothers when he came to pick her up at the house.

Should I have said encourage?

Yup I think he come to the wrong place to find out..Hell I doubt any of us can afford to go on this hunt in our own country..Maybe if we all could scrape up say 2500$ and thru it in a pot then put our names in a hat and drew a name one of us could go on a polar bear hunt??
I can afford to hunt deer,mostly cuz I walk out the door across the hay field to the river with my rifle in hand..

I hope houston gets to go on hi hunt, and then writes a glowing report about it so I can read all about it. That's the only way I'll ever know about it.

I hope we did not spook him off the "Fire"!
Ask if you want to learn, I figure.

I have never hunted polar bears but had an Inuit friend who did. His weapon of choice was a Lee Enfield #4mk2 in the powerful 303 British round. He considered them nuisance animals because they were problematic when food was hard to find. There is a high cost for the hunt but very little of that goes into local economies. I hear Thompson Manitoba is a target rich area in the winter and spring.

So Randy, would you eat the polar bear meat? They seem to be more of a carnivore.

Of course you eat the meat. That's the whole point.

A fellow would need to like the bear. There would be a lot of it.
Ever see a cookbook for polar bear?

Nope, but I'll just bet you if you cut chops and steaks and roasts and pretended it was black bear when you cooked it, the roast pan, or fry pan or barbeque couldn't tell the difference, and neither could your taste buds.

A polar bear's diet must be different than the black's.

As you pointed out,your, or my chanches of hunting the white bears is slim to none, shaded strongly tword the none side.
This is largly a mote issue unless we have not alltoghter alienated houston, and he hosts a bearbecque for all of us on his way back south.
Have a favotite sauce for bear?

No polar bears in Thompson, only black ones. You must be thinking of Churchill, but they're protected there, for everyone, including Inuit.

houston;
Hopefully this finds you doing acceptably well this crisp and for us - very cold - Remembrance Day morning.

I'll toss in a couple thoughts here before heading up the mountain behind our house to see if I can invite either a young whitetail buck or even better a young bull moose home for dinner.

The first suggestion I'd offer is to have a quick look at the information compiled in this thread. While all of it isn't pertinent to a polar bear hunt, some of it emphatically is.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...60/Planning_a_hunt_in_Canada#Post6042560

As you've read in some of the responses, most of the average Canadians here aren't going to hunt polar bears because of the cost, but a good friend of mine and his late father ran a taxidermy shop that processed several so I can speak to this a bit from that perspective.

The hunts that were conducted by the hunters that brought the hides/skulls to the taxidermy shop were conducted by Inuit hunters. My understanding was that some of the hunts were actually conducted exclusively using dog sled transportation as well - giving the hunter a very realistic adventure.

A guide up here, Jim Shockey, wrote up his polar bear hunt which was done that way and if I can find it again I'll try to get you a link.

As I recall - dimly at best - but as I recall it, Jim and his guide were trapped in a blizzard for a couple days and ended up being very close to running out of food.

I should note from having friends and family that have been up there, even with today's SPOT technology and the like, if it's blowing bad up on the tundra help will not be on the way until it stops. What I'm suggesting here is that even today life could potentially become pretty sporty in a short time on a hunt like that which is part of the allure and the hazard at the same time.

So anyway I believe that if it is an adventure of a lifetime you are looking for, that hunting polar bears in our north with Inuit folks using traditional methods to get around up there would be just that and a fair bit more.

Again on a hunt of this sort, your physical and mental conditioning must be a primary consideration and necessary foundation for a successful hunt.

Hopefully that was some use to you sir, good luck whichever way you decide and good luck on your upcoming hunts regardless.

I'd better go see about those dinner invitations now.

Regards,
Dwayne

I will continue my research, thanks Dwayne and a few others that have taken my question for its valu. For the rest of you comedians, keep it coming I can take the funny stuff! :] jeff~

Some of the stuff I have said in jest was not really in jest, houston. Hope you enjoy your hunt and that the US |Customs doesn't throw a wet towel on trying to get the hide back home.

Yes, just not the liver.

Who'da thunk it? When I first loged on this forum, I did not dream someday I would be discussing eating polar bear liver.

wabigoon;
Hopefully besides the current quandary of why we can't eat polar bear liver that this finds you and yours well.

For the record, we shouldn't eat the liver of seals or husky dogs either and for the same reason.

Here is the best/shortest explanation I could find.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/zoology/mammals/eat-polar-bear-liver.htm

All the best to you and yours sir - and may neither of us ever be in a position where we are consuming our sled dogs to survive.

Regards,
Dwayne

Interesting.
As much as I like beef liver, I eat that seldom on account of the old heart.

Then it is not like we are starving, and looking at polar bear,seal, and husky dog liver in the fridge.

I would make a coat of beef jerky just to be on the safe side.

Eric

I know of a few stories of polar bear hunts. They are in the neighbourhood of 35k with Inuit guides. The meat is supposedly almost jet black.

Search on the Alberta Outdoorsman forum. There is a guy on there that used to help manage a guide outfitting business in NWT and Nunavut and has a lot of knowledge. If I can dig up some of his posts I'll put a link to them.

Polar Bears and Politics

Canada asked to explain polar bear policies to international environmental group BOB WEBER The Canadian Press - Last updated Friday, Nov. 30 2012, 8:27 PM EST http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canada-asked-to-explain-polar-b
ear-policies-to-international-environmental-group/article5868001/

Canada is being forced to explain its polar bear policies to an international environmental watchdog. The Commission on Environmental Co-operation, which is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, has accepted a petition from a U.S.-based group that says Canada is not following its own laws on protecting the bears. In accepting the petition, the commission has found that the Center for Biological Diversity has registered a legitimate concern under the terms of the treaty. "The commission found that we had a sufficient allegation and provided sufficient documentation of the violation that we can move forward in this process,"
Sarah Uhlemann, a lawyer with the centre, said on Friday.

The petition, filed in November, 2011, alleges that Canadian officials ignored the most recent science on climate change and the loss of Arctic sea ice when they ruled last year against changing the status of the bear from "special concern" to "threatened," which would rule out hunting. It also says that the Tory government had already broken its own laws by being more than three years late in filing a mandatory management plan for the Arctic predators. The petition concludes by suggesting that hunting quotas for the bears set by Inuit co-management boards are unsustainable for some populations. Ms. Uhlemann said Canada's most recent scientific assessment of bear populations minimized the impact of ice loss. The bears use sea ice as a hunting platform for seals, their primary food. "They really didn't address the effect of climate change, which is the biggest threat to this Arctic species."

The United States listed polar bears as threatened in 2008, leaning heavily on a 2007 study that predicted the loss of sea ice could reduce bear numbers by two-thirds by 2050. "The [Canadian] analysis dismissed this study as preliminary," Ms. Uhlemann said. "It's not. In 2010, the same study was published in Nature magazine, which is one of the world's pre-eminent scientific journals." Polar bear expert Andrew Derocher at the University of Alberta said Canada's assessment played down the impact of sea ice. "Every polar bear scientist in Canada knew it was a flawed report from the outset,"
he said. "They were told it was flawed and they chose to ignore the advice.
The only position that Canada can really take now would be to do a new status assessment."

Adam Sweet, a spokesman for Environment Canada, said federal scientists conduct regular polar bear research and the government is developing a management plan for the animals, as required by legislation. Responsibility for management is shared by provinces, territories and regional wildlife management boards and a request for a new assessment would also have to involve those groups. "We will be delivering a clear and timely response that illustrates how Canada has effectively enforced the Species at Risk Act with regards to the listing of polar bear," Mr. Sweet said in an email. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, one of the world's largest scientific groups, has listed polar bears as "vulnerable," roughly equivalent to Canada's "threatened" status.

Bear numbers have always been controversial.

The union's Polar Bear Specialist Group says there are between 20,000 and 25,000 bears in the world in 19 different population groups. Eight of those groups are declining, three are stable and one is increasing. The fate of the other seven is unknown. However, Inuit maintain bear numbers are healthy despite the roughly 500 that are hunted every year. Earlier this week, the mayor of Hall Beach told northern media that bear sightings are a near-daily occurrence in his Nunavut hamlet and that hunters have already used up their quota. A Nunavut government survey this year suggested that bears in the western Hudson Bay region - thought to be one of the most endangered populations - were actually healthy, after which the territory nearly tripled the region's quota.

Environmentalists say sightings are increasing because the bears are hungry and are lured by the smell of human habitation. They point out Inuit act as guides for sport hunters and sell the bear hides. Inuit say their traditional hunting way of life is becoming collateral damage in a debate that's really about climate change. Canada has until Jan. 23 to respond to the commission. After that, the body must decide whether to start an investigation, known as a factual record. It's not the first international attempt to shut down Canada's polar bear hunt. In 2010, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species refused a request from the United States to list polar bear skins in the same banned category as elephant ivory. The group ruled that climate change, not hunting, was the real threat. In October, the United States repeated its request. There has been no ruling yet.

And this is being done through NAFTA.....just wait till they sign that trade agreement with China.....hooboy

The problem with this is that hunting per se is not the issue. Polar bear populations will decline in any event due to climate change. (Of course, for those who do not believe in climate change, it's not happening!)The real question would be along the lines of "Does it make sense to try and manage polar bear populations to fit the available habitat?" Hard to say. If polar bears are not hunted, the populations will stay higher longer but under poor circumstances for the bears. If they are hunted, the population will fall sooner but the remaining bears may exist in better circumstances.
The survival of any animal population is, in reality, dependent upon human goodwill. We've eliminated whole species in the past and will do so again. This occurs often not from hunting an animal to extinction (though humans have certainly done that often enough too) but as a consequence of developement driven by economics. Face it, if BP had to roust the last polar bear out of her den because there was oil there, she'd be hunting a new home and most wouldn't care.
As for hunting the bears, I think any hunt which is undertaken under "fair chase" guidelines is perfectly acceptable. Perhaps giving more people an opportunity to experience the dwindling Arctic would help more to recognize what we are losing. I really think the bears are likely to benefit from being hunted in that it may be better to die from the hunter's bullet rather than starve as their habitat shrinks. GD

That is one of the better posts on issues such as this that I have read on any forum. I have zero desire to kill ANY bear and with my birth/background,I have had the chance to do so, legally, scores if not hundreds of times, I just do not find it challenging and do not care for bear meat.

However, I would love to hunt a Polar Bear, using a dogsled ONLY, with ONE local Eskimo guide or maybe a guy I know in Churchill, as this would be one VERY challenging and authentic hunt.

I will never actually do this, if I can swing the costs of hunting the NWT and Yukon, it will be within the coming five years for Dall's Sheep, Caribou and maybe a Moose.....lotsa bux, even for we Canucks in our own tax-subsidized territories.

Well said, Bill, very sound reasoning and I suspect you are right on, to use a now-archaic term from our longago youth.

Not sure if I would want to freeze my azz off that long for a polar bear. I'm probably wrong but everything I've read and seen on polar bear hunting has been using yourself as bait. As in "walk around long enough and one will find you." All the hunts I've read and seen have been hunters walking X amount of time, pulling a "J" hook and shooting a polar bear that's tracking them down for dinner. Not to mention if I can't or don't like to eat it I won't hunt it. Would I like to see one in the wild? Sure. Hunt one and pay the exorbitant fee to do so. I'll pass. I don't have the room for the mount either so hopefully I can live vicariously through Houston's story.

A friend of mine took a polar bear a few years ago. Had a great hunt. He did this before the US import ban.

Houston, my suggestion is for you to check the Hunting Report and attend DSC or SCI shows in January. I'm sure you can get in touch with some reputable outfitters.

I am positive you cannot import it to the US, I do not know if there is any kind of prohibition for a US citizen to kill one. Might want to check with John Jackson at conservationforce.org.

Not that I can likely afford a polar bear hunt, and not sure I've really got a huge interest in hunting them, but...

Is there a Canadian market for the hide? Couldn't a fellow enjoy the hunt, return home to the U.S. with the requisite photos but no actual bear? Sell the hide to someone in Canada so that it doesn't go to waste?

Why not?

OK, there's no big white fluffy rug in the U.S. house/office, but there's the satisfaction of having hunted the great white bear, and photos to prove it happened. I'd be content with that.

Guy

A few friends of mine have purchased green hides from the Inuit while working up north in small eskimp villages. (Canadians) They then had them tanned etc for their own trophy rooms. Seems to me they only paid a fraction of the hunt cost so don't expect to get much return on a hide.I think the Hudsons Bay Co use to purchase Inuit killed bears and rug them up for the tourist trade. I saw some in Banff a few decades ago that were priced about the same as a new pick-up at the time.

Some of the large booking agents like Cabelas can provide info on a Polar Bear hunt. As stated you cannot import the trophy into the US. SCI has been working with other hunting groups to change the law, but its a long process. The hunt fees include freezing the pelt & storing in Canada until & if the US law is changed. Expect to pay "only" $30-40K for a package hunt excluding air & license. As in any type of hunting success is not guaranteed.

Woof. That is a big ticket item but not so bad when considering the sqare foot price. You cannot imagine how big they are unless you have been near one.

If some of these gentlemen have the resourses to hunt the white bears, they might want to put a little more with the hunt cost, and buy a house in Canada to put the rug in.

Tanned, mounted hides come up for sale in town here now and again. They usually range in price around 5k and up, depending on size and quality. I'm not sure how much it costs to tan and mount one though.

Here is one for sale now, no price.

http://www.yktrader.com/classifieds/details?AN=22260

Wabigoon, that is one expensive trophy room! 350k average house price in Canada. I just shake my head after growing up in the dirt poor US midwest.

That was my point.
I have however, seen places much cheaper than $350,000, many I could enyoy nicely.
What took you from dirt poor, midwest to Yellowknife?

In a word: wilderness. Or maybe adventure. Either way, I don't regret it. It certainly wasn't for the cheap real estate.

How do you enjoy the wilderness, and what is the adventure?
Do you hunt polar bears,or sell realestate?

I have been reading some interesting stuff by canoeists traveling Arctic Rivers on another forum. Even experienced outdoor people traveling North in the Arctic, accustomed to Barren Grounds grizzlies lose sleep at night when they know they are withinn the range of white bears. Largest and most aggressive predators in the Western Hemisphere. That makes them irrestible to some people as a trophy.

Some of what one reads on many forums concerning bears, especially Grizzly and Polar Bears is simply BS and is even dangerous. The largest bears now alive are of both species and the largest specimens of Grizzlies are found in SE Alaska and NW BC.

I have spent some time working alone in the mountains in this region, starting 40 years ago and seen my share of large bears up close. I have never had the least interest in shooting one and have never had to in self defence, but, friends and colleagues of mine have.

There are some VERY knowledgable bear people on this forum and I would take the advice from someone like Phil Shoemaker,over some urban type who packs a camera and is, frankly, a bit of a "stretcher".

If, genuinely interested, the books by Gary Shelton, an American, who immigrated to coastal BC in the mid-'60s, and listened to and learned from genuine oldtimers there are as sound a source of REAL information on dealing with bears as can be found. He was training a lot of the BCFS staff and other such professionals, an often over-used and falsely-claimed term, for some years before he retired.

His books are not expensive and should be carefully read by anyone who chooses to spend time in big bear country.

Good story on "The Current" on CBC radio about polar bears and hunting right now. They say Russia and China are the biggest buyers of polar bear fur. It used to be Europe and Japan. A good, tanned hide can get 40,000 USD in Moscow.

I have joked that my mounted wood duck wishes he would have been "born" rich instead of so good looking.
A $40,000 polar bear might feel like that as well.