A person died late last week following a polar bear attack on Brevoort Island in northeast Canada's far-flung Nunavut Territory. The attack involved two separate polar bears, according to a press release issued by the corporation that operates the remote defense facility where the incident took place.
The polar bears attacked on Thursday, August 9 at a North Warnings Systems outpost. There are dozens of North Warnings Systems facilities throughout the Arctic Circle, from Nunavut to Alaska, CBS reports. The sites are designed to detect unauthorized aircrafts and incoming cruise missiles.
Together with the Northwest Territories, Nunavut is home to about 90 percent of Canada's polar bear population. The two regions are the only places in Canada where polar bear hunting is legally permitted. The highly-regulated polar bear harvest requires that hunters be guided by native Inuits, who retrieve downed polar bears by dog sled team.
Adult polar bears can grow to lengths of 10 feet and weigh more than 1,200 pounds. Once mature, they tend to live a solitary lifestyle, but they come together around mating and shared food sources. Primary food sources for northeast Arctic polar bears include seals, walruses, beached whales, and fish.
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Polar bear maulings are relatively rare in the Arctic, though a similar attack occurred last January when a polar bear emerged from a winter swale to kill a mother and her toddler in the Alaskan village of Wales. Nasittuq says multiple employees responded to the scene of last Thursday's attack and managed to kill one of the polar bears. The victim's identity has not been released.
