Canadian Arctic town kills 28 grizzlies that lived off its dump
Three or four generations of bears had grown up eating garbage. Without it, they were left thin and sickly, circling the fence.
Inuvik, a town of about 3,500 people in Canada’s Arctic, has had to shoot 28 grizzlies. The bears had been feeding at its dump for years and, when it was closed off to them, they couldn’t live without it.
Generations of garbage bears
In 2025, wildlife officers counted more than 40 grizzlies regularly visiting the dump. “We’ve probably had three to four generations of bears that have been using that landfill,” says mayor Peter Clarkson. Many had grown up there and never learned to find other food.
A fence that didn’t work as hoped
This year the town surrounded the dump with an electric fence costing about $700,000. It was the first time anything like it had been tried in that part of the Arctic. The idea was for the bears to go back to natural food.
They didn’t leave. Some circled the fence looking for a gap and others came into town. Toby Halle, a Renewable Resources officer in Inuvik, describes them as “emaciated, sickly”, with nowhere else to go.
A lesson for anywhere with bears
Officials hope the remaining bears will move on within a couple of years and learn to eat what nature provides. The case is a reminder that applies in Europe too: a bear that gets used to human food almost always ends badly. That’s why you should never leave rubbish or food in the mountains.
In Spain, the Cantabrian bear is heading the right way: it may already number more than 400.
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