The Hazardous History of Polar Bear Hunting

Many hunters and anglers like to challenge themselves and are willing to risk their lives in search of a rare or difficult trophy. They go on adventures where one false step or one tiny mistake could mean disaster, as both the environment and the wildlife can quickly and easily end their lives.

Goat and sheep hunters that climb into the thin air of the high mountains know this danger, as do blue water anglers that head out onto rough, shark-filled seas and African big game hunters who stand their ground against charging lions, buffalo, and elephants. However, absolutely none of these other activities hold a candle to what is considered the most dangerous pursuit of them all—polar bear hunting.

A Modern Challenge

Polar bear hunting is highly regulated, with indigenous communities in Canada and Greenland taking the bulk of the harvest. These hunts are monitored under strict quotas but still allow for a few permits to be issued each year to hunters in regions that can support the activity. Though it’s still considered controversial to do so, as it raises questions about hunting animals considered to be at risk, many adventurous hunters still dream of going to the Arctic in pursuit of the polar bear that they consider to be the greatest of big game trophies.

“It’s honestly a bit crazy as well as the ultimate hunting adventure,” says legendary bowhunter Tom Miranda, who harvested a polar bear with his bow on an epic hunt in 2007. “It’s like climbing Everest where there’s danger all around you at every second, and if you screw up, there’s no getting back. That’s polar bear hunting.”

Miranda hunted his bear from a dog sled with an Inuit guide as required by law, using a traditional method where fresh bear tracks were found in the snow and then followed. Once the bear was spotted, the Inuit unleashed their sled dogs one at a time to run it down in a method similar to hound hunting for black bears and mountain lions. The dogs eventually cornered the animal in a convenient spot for the hunter to make their shot.

“What’s cool about hunts like this is that you get to do it the same way it’s been done for hundreds of years,” Miranda told MeatEater. “The bears are afraid of the dogs and start to run, and you chase after it. Eventually, the bear gets tired, usually after the guide has turned enough dogs loose so they can’t tow the sled anymore, meaning you’re on foot. The Inuit try to time it so they can bay up the bear, and then you get off the sled and get close. Typically, the bear will find a lead (a crack in the ice in a ridge) to hold up in, which allows you and the guide to get up behind it for a shot. It’s a very efficient system.”

While on the hunt, Miranda experienced the majesty of the Arctic. Despite being a very capable and experienced outdoorsman, he was still awed by the hazards that hunting in such an environment entailed.

“Obviously, the cold is the biggest danger,” Miranda said. “You go out on the sea ice, and it’s a breathtakingly beautiful place, but you’re at nature’s mercy. I went through one storm with 85 mph winds that froze a dog to death. You only live by staying in your tent in all your clothes in that kind of weather. It’s the type of cold that’s just silly. You take your gloves off to take a leak, your fingers are going to freeze, and your urine becomes an icicle as soon as it hits the ground. You touch anything metal, your hands freeze to it. It’s honestly kind of terrifying.”

Miranda relied on his native guides to keep him safe on the hunt, yet he was very aware of what could go wrong throughout the experience.

“You know the Inuit are going to take care of you, and they teach you how to build an igloo and show you where all their survival gear is in case something happens to them. The reality is though, that if anything does happen to them, you’re probably going to die,” Miranda said. “I grew up trapping in South Dakota winters and have a lot of experience with cold-weather survival. But if I were alone in the Arctic, I’d last maybe three days.”

What truly amazes Tom and many other hunters who visit and hunt in the Arctic are the capabilities of the Inuit. As a people who both live with and depend on the polar bear and polar bear hunting, the tribe's ability to survive and thrive in such a harsh landscape is truly astonishing. For the Inuit, polar bear hunting in the Arctic isn’t just some thrilling adventure, but a traditional, hard-earned lifestyle.

“The fact that they can survive out there is amazing,” Miranda told MeatEater. “It’s Mars up there man, it’s desolate, yet they can read it and hunt on it like the rest of us would read a deer trail. They could find bears but what was more impressive was how they could read the environment. My guides would see a single cloud over the ice and know that it meant there was open water ahead and whenever the guides saw something like that we turned around and went the other way. We’d use ice leads to break up the wind but sometimes the storm would be blowing one way and then change direction but they were pretty good weathermen and could predict it and get us out of there. They're amazing people and part of the reason we need to work on removing the taboos around hunting polar bears is because it will both help the bears and the people who depend on them.”

Historically Hazardous

Polar bear hunting is old, very old, and it’s a practice that helped to shape both hunting and conservation into what they are today. Though it’s been a documented activity for around 8,000 years, polar bear hunting may in fact be more ancient than originally thought.

In December 1994, cave paintings depicting both bears and bear hunting were discovered in France that date back to around 32,000 BC. While it’s unclear whether these paintings are of polar bears or extinct cave bears, carbon dating shows that the paintings were made sometime towards the end of the last Ice Age, a time when polar bears were extremely prevalent.

Further on in history, there are records of Vikings hunting polar bears along the coast of Norway as far back as the 11^th Century. Spearing a hvítabiôrn or “ice bear” was considered to a true test of a warrior in Viking society and many tribes would even capture polar bear cubs alive to use as both pets and to be presented as gifts to foreign nobility. The bears became a symbol of hunting prowess and of status during this time, separating the bears from more common game animals and elevating their status. Still, aside from the Vikings and of course the Inuit tribes who have been hunting polar bears for their furs and skins for over 2,000 years, the polar bear remained a niche and subsistence type hunt until around the 16^th century.

In the 1500s and into the 1600s, when Norway and Russia’s wealth was on the rise, polar bear skins became a valued trade item. Hunters from Greenland to Canada began pursuing the white bears with unbridled enthusiasm, shooting them from boats and trapping them on the ice, and by the 19th century, the bear population had dropped significantly.

However, populations began to climb once again when polar bear furs began falling out of fashion in the early 1800s, and many hunters no longer considered the animals worth the risk. Throughout the history of polar bear hunting, those who pursued the bear were constantly putting their lives on the line. Between the extreme cold of the Arctic and the unpredictability of both the ice and the bears themselves, more than a few hunting parties were completely lost. Still, there was a profit to be made in both the hides of the adults and the live cubs, which could be sold to zoos and circuses, and so as weapons and hunting methods became more efficient, polar bears continued to be hunted, trapped, and poisoned well into the 20^th century.

By the late 1950’s many famous big game hunters, including Shelby Longoria and Gordon Eastman, considered the bears to be the ultimate challenge and the hunts themselves to be the greatest adventure. Yet, these hunters also noted that the bears were getting harder and harder to find.

Still, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the polar bear decline was finally noticed by scientists, and the animals finally became protected under The International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, which was signed by Canada, Denmark, Norway, the United States, and the former USSR in 1973. At the time, the polar bear population was teetering on the brink of extinction, but thanks to these united conservation efforts, the bears quickly bounced back, and by the late 1980s, their population had nearly doubled. This made many countries lift their complete restrictions on polar bear hunting, opening opportunities for new generations to face the challenges and dangers of the hunt.

Saving the Bears with Hunting?

Currently there is a population of around 26,000 to 31,000 polar bears worldwide. While this is by no means a high population overall, it’s still the highest population of polar bears since protections went into effect over 50 years ago. With this rise in polar bear population, comes the possibility of not only saving polar bear hunting but also saving the bears themselves.

Since the 1970s when the polar bear was officially declared endangered, many countries outlawed trophy and even native hunting for the animals, including the US. Furthermore, in 2008, it became illegal to import polar bear parts into the United States, making Tom Miranda’s 2007 bear one of the last to be brought into the country. While this act was perceived as a positive step for the polar bears that were being hunted, it has also taken away a valuable source of income from the Inuit and other tribes that depended on guide fees.

“You have to understand the Inuit are limited by what they can do up there,” Miranda told MeatEater. “They’re really taken care of by the government and they all get a check to be able to live in the Arctic and it’s almost impossible for them to live off anything else because they have permission to hunt everything. Guiding is one of the only businesses they have and when the US decided that you couldn’t import polar bears to the US they lost a huge amount of income.”

Polar bear hunting is expensive, with tags costing upwards of $30,000. While this makes it impossible for everyday hunters to afford to go, the few that can afford a polar bear hunt are delivering a massive chunk of money into the Arctic economy and many of these hunters who can afford to do so live in the US. By lifting sanctions and restrictions on polar bear hunting in the United States, American hunters could contribute funds to not only the local economy but also to polar bear conservation.

Risk and Reward

Roughly 800 to 1000 polar bears are killed by hunters per year, the bulk of which are taken by the illegal skin trade. This reflects that hunting accounts for only a small percentage of the threat to the overall polar bear population. If American hunters were able to import their trophies, more American dollars could and would be put towards polar bear conservation, helping to protect the animals against the real hazards of global warming, pollution, and poaching. It would also cut down on dangerous polar bear encounters with humans, which are becoming more frequent as the bear population grows and their habitat shrinks. Similar programs have been introduced in Africa with great success, and this is a model that could perhaps be followed. When it comes to caring about and protecting nature, hunters are at the top of the class.

In the end, the hazards of polar bear hunting are great, but the question remains whether the dangers the great bears of the Arctic are currently facing could be turned around by hunters willing to take on the challenge. It may be a risky venture in either case but as every hunter and angler out there knows, it’s often the greatest risks that yield the greatest rewards.

Images via Tom Miranda.