National Park After Dark - A Strand in the Web: Torngat Mountains National Park

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

In July 2013, while camping in Torngat Mountains National Park in northern Labrador, Matt Dyer was pulled from his tent by a polar bear. He was ultimately saved, but the experience would live with him forever.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Thrive Market: Use our link to get 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift.Reel: Use our link and code NPAD to get 30% off your first order plus free shipping.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax. As AI does the manual work, while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless.

Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. All things are bound together. Those words spoken centuries ago by Chief Seattle merely

echoed what his people knew for a time immemorable. We are not separate from the environment. We are of it. Our actions or inactions have long-lasting ripple effects on everything around us. And while we may think these ripples are sent out far, far away, somewhere else, dissipating as they travel, sometimes they boomerang right back at us as waves, and hit us right where it hurts.

Welcome to National Park After Dark. Hello, welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm really excited. I know what this episode's about already, so I'm really excited about it. But I think when everyone else figures out exactly what this is about, they're also going to be very excited. I know. I was really, really pumped to do this one, and I couldn't shut up about it. So I already kind of told Cassie.

Welcome back, everybody. Before we get started, we have, I think. think just one thing to talk about. And that is we are doing a Spotify live event. Again, this is going to be our second one. It's going to be January 26th at 4 p.m. Pacific time, 7 p.m. Eastern. Yeah, and not only are we doing the Spotify life, but it is the anniversary of us doing two years of this podcast. Almost to the day. I think we released it the 27th, like the first. No, is the 25th, the first one. Oh, you know what the 27th is? What?

My adopt anniversary for Chaska. Aw. That's why I always think of January 27th. It's a big week. It's a big week. There's a lot going on, yeah. Well, it's our two year, and we're going to be doing a live show, and we're going to be doing a fun Q&A just to talk about the podcast, how it started.

So many people have reached out to us and asked questions. Like, how did you guys think of this? How do you find the research? What's it like to create a podcast? Things like that. So we'd love to answer all your questions in the Spotify Live. Yeah, it'll be a mixture of, you know, behind the scenes of the show, just fun questions, just basically shooting the shit and celebrating two years of National Park After Dark.

So if you're interested in that, it is only on Spotify. You can listen through the Spotify app as normal. But if you want a chance to interact with us and we can bring you like kind of up on stage, if you will, and it's kind of like a live call type of situation. To do that, you have to download the Spotify. Live app, but otherwise, if you just want to listen, you can just listen as normal through Spotify. Yeah. And with the Spotify Live app, you can message us too. So if you have questions, you don't want to actually talk on the podcast, but you have questions. You can write into a chat and you get to

talk to all the other people who are listening as well. So there's a fun little chat going on. We'll be talking. We'll be engaging in it in real time. And yeah, it'll be really fun. The first one was awesome. This one's going to be really fun. We're stoked for it. Yeah. So hopefully we see you all there. But for this episode, we are going to Torngat Mountains National Park. Do you have any idea where that is? Where is that? Okay, well, it is located on the Labrador Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. Very cool. You might want to look up the location just to kind of get your bearings a little bit because I know when I read that, I was like, I have no idea what that means. I know where Canada is, but I actually know where you're talking about. Okay. There's some other national parks around there

and my family just went up there, and they were sending me pictures all around the national parks in that area, and they're like, you have to come, you have to come. And they got me, I don't have it near me right now, but they actually got me a hat from one of the national parks there, too. So I do know where you're talking about. Where exactly were they? Like in Newfoundland? Yeah, they were in Newfoundland. They were in Gross, More National Park is where they were. Oh, I have no idea what that is. It's in Newfoundland and a Labrador, I think, as well. Okay, so right up where we're going to be today. Yeah. The last time I was in Canada, actually, that's a lie. The last time I was in Canada, I went to Montreal, but the first time ever went to Canada, I went to Nova Scotia and I was a kid. And it was one of those, like,

ill-fated family vacations where I was stuck in the back of the van with like four, three generations of family. And it was just, it was rainy and foggy the whole time. And I was like a pissed off, like, 13-year-old or however. So I wish I was in a better frame of mind, but hopefully I can transport everyone to a nice visit in Canada this time around. Oh, Canada. Sorry. So thank you. So this national park is actually the largest in all of Atlantic Canada. It encompasses 9,700 square kilometers or 2.4 million acres. And to give you an idea, at least people in the States, a good idea of how big that is, it's an area larger than Yellowstone National Park. So it's pretty big.

The park is not only large, it's extremely remote. With borders running along the Labrador Sea, which separates northern Canada from southern Greenland, it also contains the highest mountains in mainland, Canada, east of the Rockies. The park was first created in 2005 and later established in 2008 to honor the relationship that the Inuit peoples of the area have with the land, that for centuries has been sacred and known as Our Beautiful land and the place of spirits. Parks Canada actually co-runs the park along with the Nunanciavat government with a goal to honor Inuit rights, interests, and the relationship that the Inuit have with the

landscape, which includes hunting and fishing rights within the park borders. Very cool. There are four different climactic regions that are found within this national park. The mountain alpine, coastal fjords and headlands, southern interior valleys, and Arctic are all filled with Super tall mountains, sea ice stories high, rocky beaches, glacial lakes, low shrubbery, and waterfalls. The park is open year-round and is accessible by chartered plane, cruise ship, or snowmobile. Due to its remote location, Torngat Mountains National Park welcomes less than 600 people a year. Wow. Well, I'm convinced. I'm ready to go.

An area bigger than Yellowstone. No one visits. And no one goes there. Well, there's no roads, so it sounds like. Mm-hmm. There's no roads. Well, I'm down. Let's do it. Well, the journey takes a lot of careful planning, obviously, because you can't just drive there. There are no roads, no official campgrounds, and no signs.

But those who do make it here are in for some of the most breathtaking views and experiences in the world. Activities such as mountain climbing, stargazing, helicopter rides, boat tours, cultural experiences, northern lights watching, hiking and kayaking are amongst the most popular. Wildlife watching is also a huge draw here because there's species like caribou, wolves, fox, peregrine falcons, black bears, and polar bears that all roam the sub-arctic park. Backcountry camping is also permitted, but only advised for the seasoned and experienced outdoorsmen. A simple Google image search of this national park will give anyone the travel bug. So, Cassie, I see you reaching for your phone. I'm Googling it right now. How do I spell it?

Okay, T-O-R-N-G-A-T, Mountains National Park. Oh, yeah. I am totally down. It's beautiful. Yeah, this is so pretty. It's going to give you that travel bug itch to get you to the northern reaches of Canada. One of the first photos that comes up is a little polar bear rolling around on the ground. I know, look at his foot.

So cute, just like straight up in the air. You think cat paws are cute. Look at this thing. Yeah, get a load of that. With all this beauty, it's no wonder why in July of 2013, Matthew Dyer packed his bags to go explore this park. But it would be a vacation that would change him forever. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session.

And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So Matthew Dyer is a classic manor, and if you're from New England, you understand exactly what I mean. He's hearty and rough around the edges, but super soft inside.

His father was a lobster man, and Matt's earliest memories involved, watching his dad row his boat ashore through thick, salty fog. In 2013, Matt was in his late 40s, and he had made a home for himself, his wife, and his dogs in Turner, Maine, working as a lawyer at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, where it was his job and passion to help those with financial and or mental health issues. He enjoyed gardening, brewing mead, and hiking the trails of New England. His grown-out wispy gray hair often held back from his face with a classic red bandana. He had tattoos of birds, turtles, and bulls adorning his calves, and Yigdrasal, which is an important feature in Norse mythology, which is the tree of life, sprawled across his back.

So what I'm trying to say is Matt wasn't just a lawyer. He was a cool lawyer. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's a cool lawyer. He's got a life tree on his back. Right. And he had never physically been to the Torngat Mountains, but he had read extensively about them and felt a deep connection to them. In Icelandic, Norse mythology, the area was called Markland, the New World, which was a sacred land where polar bears were revered as gods. And while he lived in Maine, his ancestry traced back to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. That's likely when he saw an ad in the fall 2012 issue of Sierra Magazine advertising a two-week adventure of a lifetime in the lower reaches of Canada's Arctic tundra, he absolutely jumped on it.

The ad warned participants must be fit and experienced hikers, would have to accept an element of risk and highlighted the lack of access to emergency medical care due to the remote location of the park. But despite the warnings, Matt read on, if you dream of experiencing a place that is both pristine and magical, a land of spirits and polar bears rarely seen by humans, this is the trip you have been waiting for. That's what the ad read, and that was what he was waiting for. He was waiting for the trip of a lifetime. Well, I'm sold. I would read that and be like, yeah, that's for me, for sure. Let's go. Hookline and sinker. Yeah, they got you.

He eagerly applied for a spot, hoping whoever was in charge would accept him. And one of those people in charge was 61-year-old Rich Gross. Although he worked for a nonprofit in San Francisco, he had been working as a Sierra Club guide several weeks each year since the 1990s. He loved the Arctic and the feeling of being small in a vast wilderness. And that was just one of the reasons why he loved organizing trips. To venture to remote corners of the world where not many people get the chance of. to visit. Torn Gap Mountains National Park was chosen for this exact reason. That, and Rich wanted to

see polar bears. The park was actually named after Torn Garsoak, an ancient Inuit spirit who appeared as a polar bear and controlled the lives of sea animals. Rich's co-lead was 60-year-old Marta Chase, who worked as a medical diagnostics consultant, but like Rich, was a seasoned and experienced outdoorsman with certified wilderness first responder credentials. She had been guiding hiking trips since high school and this particular trip would be the 14th one that she led with Rich for the Sierra Club. But she was a little bit hesitant about this one and she actually almost canceled. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and pending mastectomy kind of caused some pause for her about going on this trip. But after she talked with her doctors and she got their approval,

she decided to go forward with it. And she's going before she has the surgery? Yes. Yep. I mean, Kind of a fun way to, like I'm about to have this major surgery, might as well, and go under major treatments, I'm sure, might as well have a little bit of fun before that starts. Exactly. And each year, she and Rich would take turns with who led the research and outreach for the trips. They kind of like just flip-flopped. They had kind of worked out this sort of division of labor when it came to handling all the trip logistics. And this year was her turn to do that. They received tons of applications for this particular trip, but settled on the following group. 65-year-old Larry Rodman, a Manhattan lawyer, 66-year-old Marilyn Frankel, an exercise physiologist from Oregon, and 56-year-old Rick Eisenberg from Scottsdale, Arizona, who worked as a clinical researcher and was a retired physician.

Every one of those applicants were experienced outdoorsmen who had been on other Sierra Club trips before, several of which were actually led by Rich and Marta. So they're kind of like veterans. They've been on several before. 64-year-old Kee Cobb Castanita Mendez, which was Marta's husband, also joined the group. Matt was kind of the odd one out in that sense. He was no stranger to the outdoors at all, like by any stretch of the imagination. He spent ample time outdoors in New England, and he even trekked with the Appalachian Mountain Club. But Rick had reservations about his application because he noted a glaring lack of backpacking experience and he emphasized that the trip was going to be particularly rough and remote. But despite

this, Matt pushed. He wrote back insistent that he was up for the challenge and he was, you know, he was like, I can do it. I'm no stranger to the outdoors. He was sending in all these photos of him atop different mountain summits in Maine and New Hampshire. He was really selling himself. And it worked. Rich and Marta approved his application with the condition that he would follow a strict training regimen. weren't just like, okay, we believe you. They're like, all right, you do have experience, but you're going to have to train for this trip if we're going to allow you on. Fair. I mean, it sounds like he has a lot of day hiking experience. Yes, exactly. And he was absolutely elated when he got accepted. And his wife watched her husband regularly strap on snow shoes and load his pack

with 50 pounds of gear and set off and trek into the woods for 10 mile training hikes. And he did this for months. It had been decades since he had trained like that, and just as long since his last pretty big adventure, which was when he traveled Europe via train during a break from his time at the University of Maine. So after months and months of prep work, Matt was ready for the trip of a lifetime. Rich, Marta, and Kikob flew in a day early on July 18th, 2013 to take care of last-minute trip preparations, while the remaining group members arrived the following day. Marta had spent the previous several months in communication, both via email and direct phone conversation, with both Parks, Canada, and local Alan Lagasse, who had been operating guided tours, expeditions, and

safaris in the area for decades. Together, they created the trip that the group would follow, and this was the plan. The group would fly from Montreal to Kujouac, the largest Inuit community in Nunavik, the Inuit region of Quebec. Next, they'd take a charter plane to Lagasse's camp and spend the night. Then they would take a float plane that would bring them into Tornat Mountains National Park, where they would be on their own for the next 11 days. Although experienced and prepared, Marta knew the limitations of her own knowledge and expressed it in writing through communications to both the local outfitter and Parks Canada. In one of her emails, she wrote, quote, the thought of polar bears is still a concern to me. I have experienced

with black and brown bears, but not with polar. Her extensive research regarding polar bear safety within the park fueled their gear preparation, and they loaded up with all of the recommended items. And that included bear spray, bear bangers, which are loud explosives that's kind of launched from like a handheld cylinder. I don't know if we talked about that before or not, so just wanted to clarify that. And flare guns. Plus something additional that was not on the recommended list, but they had heard of before and

wanted to bring with them. And that was two sets of electric fences to put around the perimeter of their camp. Oh, smart. Guns are like firearm. Guns are not generally allowed in Canada's national parks. But in 2011, Parks Canada tweaked the rules a bit for parks that contained polar bears, allowing researchers, guides licensed by Parks Canada, and local native Canadians to apply for gun permits. for those parks that have a polar bear population.

Guns could also be carried by Inuit bear guards who have taken polar bear safety courses and that have gone through licensing with Parks Canada. And the reason for this change is that Parks Canada cited an increased risk of dangerous human bear encounters due to the impact of climate change on sea ice. So this is all kind of happened within the last 10 to 12 years, this change. So it's important to note that this change

did go into effect by the time their trip came around, but they were not permitted or licensed to carry firearms, and they were not traveling with anyone who had that license either. I imagine that this might be why she's so nervous going into the park, because I'm assuming that she heard that there's been an increased risk with polar bear attacks. Well, that and she has just no experience with this type of bear either. You know, it's like, yes, she's had decades and decades worth of backcountry backpacking experience and she's encountered a lot of different wildlife, but going into such a remote area with little to no experience with one of, if not the top predator in the area, it can make anyone a little uncomfortable. And she's responsible for an entire group of people.

Yeah. It just say it's reminding me of my Ada Blackjack episode where she went to Rangel Island, which was a polar bear mating ground. And she was just terrified. She's like, I don't know what to do. I'm so scared of polar bears. Like, I know I'm going to die. And she didn't. And she didn't. Which was great. The Parks Canada website also strongly encourages visitors to the Torn Gats to hire bear guards,

but they are not required. So when Marta asked Lagasse whether they'd need a bear guard, she said he told her that no one who traveled through his camp utilized them. And none of the Parks Canada employees she was in communication with in those months leading up to the trip mentioned bear guards either. So she's kind of just going off of the recommendations that, you know, the locals and everyone who actually lives there was telling her. The park required anyone entering the park to watch a mandatory DVD on polar bear safety, which the group did before their trip. After months of prep work, ironing out all the logistics, mentally and physically preparing, it was time to go.

And it's also important to note that the group communicated their plans once in the national park to parks Canada as well. I think this is a lot different from maybe definitely mine, but probably a lot of people listening their experiences with national parks. Like, I have never once communicated my travel plans with national park employees unless I was signing a backcountry log, like at a trailhead. Yeah, I mean, I've definitely stopped at the visitor center and been like, where should I go? What trails should I do? What's open?

And then been like, oh, I'm going to go to that. That's a good idea. Thank you. Yeah. Like we did that when we were in Rocky Mountain the last time we were there together. But this is like they are literally telling them play by play where they're going, what day, like they're going to be at what location. Like it was very detailed.

Makes sense. Since they're so far in the back country with no one around, it's not like they can just hop on a road and like drive to a hospital. If anything were to happen, it would be a full rescue mission. Exactly. So their plan, which they communicated to the park, would be that once they're actually in the park, I know there was a lot of other things leading up to this, but this is when they're on their own in the park. They would begin at Notchfack Fjord and move inland,

packing up camp most mornings and working their way toward an end at the Comachtorvik Fjord, where they'd be met by a plane from Lagasse's camp. So they had an entry point. They were making their way over and they'd have an extraction plan. They estimated their days to be about six hours of trekking and hiking each day, lugging their 50-pound packs, breaking down and setting up camp, every day. Halfway through the trip, a plane was scheduled to drop off the rest of their food supply, so they didn't have to lug 11 days' worth of food for six people or seven people. So it would be a really

difficult trip, but totally worth it. So there's all of this prep work, so much logistics going into this. Finally, they're ready to get started, feeling good about the preparation level and anxious to get that two-week trip going. On July 19th, 2013, the group hopped aboard a small float plane with seating for less than 20 people and took off toward the Barnoyan River camp, about 900 miles north of Montreal, where they spent the night. They used this time as kind of a practice before their time in the park, because this is when they're with a local outfitter still. This is his camp. So they're kind of using this time to set up camp, get kind of in the groove of things. If there's anything that's not working or needs tweaking, they have a local there to help them. So they've set up camp,

Even their electric fencing, all of that. And they were testing their deterrence, making sure their flares didn't jam. They had appropriate number of shells, et cetera. Everything goes smoothly. And then on July 21st, just as planned, a float plane brought the group towards the notch vac fjord. They were dropped off. And as the pilot said goodbye, the group immediately set to work choosing a campsite.

So now they're in the national park. It's kind of like I envision alone, the show alone. It's like when the plane or the boat leaves and they're like, shit, I'm like really by myself in the middle of nowhere. Like that's it. I'm officially here. I really chose to do this. Exactly. Yeah. It's when shit gets real, you know. So they're dropped off. The pilot leaves and they immediately start scouting out a place to set up their campsite. And they were drawn to a flat area about 150 yards off the shoreline with easy access to drinking water. The group had been instructed in their intro to the park along with that polar bear safety video. to avoid camping directly next to the shore.

And they felt as though this was a good enough spot because it was near the Labrador Sea coastline, but it wasn't right alongside it. Plus, although it was not a designated campsite, remember there is no such thing in this park. It appeared as if there had been activity at this spot before for campers. There was like a fire ring and some stacked rocks and it was kind of a cleared area.

It looked like there had been tents there before. Okay, that makes sense. They got to work setting up their campsite and a separate cooking and food storage area as well about 200 yards away. So there's kind of two encampment areas. And they set up the electric fences around the perimeters of each one. And that was kind of their first priority to get that set up. They're like, keep these polar bears out, please.

Yes. So just to kind of give everyone a visual of what this looked like, each fence was about three feet high, and it had three parallel wires attached to four foot poles. And the voltage was around 5 to 7 kilo volts, which would not be enough to like knock a bear out or physically harm it. But it would be enough to act as a deterrent hopefully. I'm sorry, three feet tall? Yes.

For a polar bear? Yes. They can just step right over that. I know. Are they trying to keep out like a puppy? What is even? I don't know. That's what.

That is okay. And I think that's actually pretty, I think that's pretty standard that size. Because if you think about it, like, unless this polar bear is like secret agent polar bear, it's not going to be like stop directly in front of it. Lift all four of its limbs carefully over this three foot fence. Like, it's just going to plow through there and right. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what polar bears, if there's food that they smell, they might just like one paw at a time step over.

I'm just picturing I volunteer at a horse farm every week. And horses are probably a similar size to polar bears and like height and size. and stuff. And their fences are much higher than three feet tall. Yeah. And polar bears are massive. They're taller than me. I'm 5'2.

And these fences are taller than me. So that... Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm just... That's my first red flag that I feel like I'm seeing in this. But, okay, three feet. I could walk over three feet. Yeah.

I know. Well, we'll get... The electric fence will come back into play here. Okay. I'm concerned. I have concerns. You should be concerned. Once all of the tents were set up, they had their first wildlife sighting.

Literally as soon as they got their, like, they hadn't even been there a half an hour. And they had their first major wildlife sighting. And it was a wolf right along the short line. And they were totally amazed. They spent the rest of their day hanging out in the area and getting kind of a lay of the land. Everyone enjoyed the first uneventful night cooking, hanging around the campfire, talking, laughing, and listening to the wolf howells on the wind all night, finally turning in for the night around 10.30.

Early the next morning, which was July 22nd, Kikob rose first to go use the bathroom, and he emerged from his tent, stretched his legs. It was about 4.30 in the morning, so super early, and he noticed something in the distance. Well, there was two somethings. And in a hushed but urgent tone, he roused the rest of his friends,

urging them to get out of their tents. He pointed down to the shore, shoreline and everyone watched in silence as a mother polar bear and her cub walked along the rocky beach perpendicular to their camp and everyone was beaming. This is exactly what they were hoping for. The opportunity to see wildlife in action and here it was. It doesn't get realer than that. They watched the pair for several minutes until they disappeared in the distance and they all were just laughing and smiling, hugging each other. What a beautiful start to the day. Magical. After a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, everyone prepared their day packs for a hike across the fjord. It was a breathtaking hike with views for miles. Matt recall seeing Bear Scat, which he thought was more likely to be Black Bear because there was a bunch of berries in it, but he wasn't sure. Caribou antlers and a skull of something that he guessed was either a seal or a wolf. And he thought, like his first thought of seeing all of this stuff was there's a lot of living and dying on Stark.

display here, a place that made humans seem very insignificant. At 3.30 in the afternoon, they were nearing camp and came across a small stream. With their tents in sight, Kikob decided to sit down and remove his shoes and walk barefoot along the fresh, cool stream. Not even halfway across, he was hearing shouting, coming from behind him from his group of friends. Matt had spotted a polar bear and had alerted everyone. Get back here. We have a bear. His wife, Marta, was yelling to him, who he quickly like skittled right back to the group real quick. I bet. And the white dot in the distance was coming directly their way.

As it approached, it was clear that this animal was not the female bear that they had seen earlier in the day. This was a male and his behavior was quite different. The female and her cub earlier that morning had without a doubt seen the group, but appeared totally unfazed and totally uninterested in them and just kind of went on their way and didn't look at him, But this encounter felt different. This individual animal's snout was high up in the air and its tongue was sticking out, clearly assessing the group. Smelling, tasting the air, sizing them up, essentially. So the group bunched together and they were yelling and waving their poles in the air and generally making themselves look bigger and scarier, but the bear gave no indication of fear or any type of concern.

And at this point, it was roughly 50 yards in front of them. And it wasn't stopping. Get back to your electric three-foot fence, guys. They're out on a high dirt. They're not going to run. That's the worst thing you can do. Yeah. So it's not bolting at them, but it's not slowing down.

It's coming right at them. And Rich decided it was time to take action. He kind of consulted with Marta really quickly, and she kind of gave him the green light, and he fired his flare gun directly at the feet of the approaching bear. The close contact with the flash scared the bear off, and everyone kind of like breathed the sigh of relief. Like, okay, thank God that worked, because if not, we don't have another weapon. And they were feeling a little proud and victorious, like they just had their first polar bear encounter. But that joy quickly reduced to worried murmurs as they all watched as the bear stopped its retreat,

opting instead to leisurely walk to a nearby ledge about 300 yards away, which overlooked their campsite and he just plopped right down. He rested his head on his outstretched front paws and his eyes were on the group all night. He's like, I'm just going to sit back here and watch and see what I think of you guys. Yep. So that was 3.30 in the afternoon roughly that that happened and this bear did not move all day into the night. At least you have a three foot electric fence for this giant ass bear that's now stalking you. Mm-hmm. So before we go on, let's just kind of get into polar bears just briefly.

Obviously, I would hope we all know what a polar bear is, but they have some interesting behaviors and stats associated with them to get a greater appreciation for what is about to happen. I think we should all get a little more acquainted with polar bears. Yes, teach us about polar bears. Well, now we have the trifecta. So, okay, I know there are more species of bears than just black bear, polar bear, and grizzly. But we now have the trifecta going on here. You've got the main three up here. Polar bears are also known as sea bears or ice bears, and it is the largest land carnivore in the world.

A true apex predator, they are the top of the food chain and have no natural predators. Males are typically larger than females and can actually be up to two to three times larger in weight. Males come in around 550 to 1,700 pounds and are 8 to 10 feet in length. while females around 330 to 650 pounds and 6 to 8 feet in length. Three foot fence. Three foot fence. And that three foot fence is looking smaller by the minute. According to the Guinness Book of World Records,

the heaviest polar bear ever documented was shot in Alaska in 1960. And just get ready for this. You actually might want to Google this because the image is insane. Okay. It weighed 2,209 pounds and stood 12 feet tall. It was displayed at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. So if you type in Seattle World's Fair and polar bear, you'll see it. I found it.

Wow. That bear. It's a giant. Like there's no other way to put it. It's insane. Yeah. Spear is so big. As their nickname alludes to, polar bears live and hunt primarily on the sea ice in

Arctic environments following the pack ice. They have double-layered fur, black skin, and four inches of blubber to keep them warm. Same. I want four pounds of blubber to keep me warm. I wouldn't need a throw blanket everywhere I go. Their elongated body, long neck, and narrow skulls make them streamlined and efficient swimmers, and their large webbed feet help them propel through the water, and they do kind of like a doggy paddle motion when they swim. And those large paws, webbed paws, actually act as snowshoes on land as well. And a little cool thing about their fur, which I didn't write this down, it's just kind of a side note. Arctic wolves, when I worked at the Wolf Center, we had a few Arctic wolves and we did, you know, educational talks about their physical adaptations

that reminded me a lot of polar bears. So kind of similar. So polar bears have black skin and two layers of fur. They have this like downy, thicker undercoat and then these long guard hairs that are actually transparent. Like they, you look at a polar brand and you think it's white, but their fur is not white. It's transparent. And the way that their guard hairs are, they help retain the heat from the sun along with their black skin. And it also helps insulate them and helps them swim through the water. It's really cool. Oh, wow. That's really interesting. I had no idea. And going back to swimming, they're amazing swimmers. And they have been documented swimming continuously 63 miles in search of their favorite prey, which are seals. Poor things. I know. Baby seals are

probably the cutest baby animals on the planet. The puppies of the ocean. And even though the polar bears are amazing swimmers, catching seals in open water is super tricky business and they're often very unsuccessful, just straight up swimming. I mean, seals are far and away, better swimmers, more agile. So polar bears have evolved a hunting adaptation that makes them more successful hunters. And it's through a method called still hunting. So the bear will wait for hours, sometimes even days, outside of a small breathing hole that seals pop out of in the ice. So once the seal surfaces to catch a breath, the bears will grab it by its head and pull it out of the water and eat it, consume it from there. Smart.

Very smart. I mean, it's a waiting game. I mean, for hours and days sometimes. You're going to come up sometime. I'll be here. Exactly. And when they find seals on land, typically in a den-like structure under layers of snow, the bears will stand up on their hind legs for momentum and come down hard on all fours on their front paws

to break the roof of the snow structure that seals hide underneath. and they'll extract them from there. And I did learn one of the coolest facts in a long time, I think, doing research on polar bears. And they don't drink water. What? What do they do? I know. I'm like, wait, hold on.

What? So they need water, just like every other animal. But because they spend so much time out in the middle of the ocean, obviously surrounded by saline water. And all the freshwater is in the form of frozen solid ice or snow. And obviously, if you're, you know, you can eat snow and melt ice in your mouth. But metabolically speaking, that's a huge waste of energy. So what they do, they have evolved to get their water from a chemical reaction that breaks down fat. So when they consume their prey, they actually just go for the blubber and typically leave the rest behind for other scavengers like wolves or fox.

So they're not eating the meat. They have a, or sometimes they do, but they're going after the blubber because, has it super high in fat in which they extract the water out of. So their food is their water and their... Yes. Yes. That's so interesting. I know.

I was like blown away by that for some reason. You know, it does kind of make sense because they're in these Arctic regions that, like you said, fresh water is completely frozen and then they're surrounded by ocean water. So what would they drink? Exactly. I guess it's something that you've never really thought of before. But once you do, you're like, oh, yeah, wait a second. It's kind of like when I realized how pineapples grow.

Like, it's one of those things where when you realize how it happens, you're like, I never thought of this before. But now that I know, it's not what I thought it was going to be like. Yeah, like my mind and my world has changed forever. Yeah. Over the last several decades, polar bear behavior has been changing. And we'll get into that a little more later on. But what is important to know for right now is that polar bears are spending more and more time on land

as their traditional hunting grounds, the sea ice, disappears and they need to improvise. So that's a little bit on polar bears. And that brings us back to the giant stocking polar bear of this camp. That is correct. So we're back to the night of July 22nd. Matt had stayed up for quite a while that night, actually. He was very anxious and he could not keep his eyes off of this bear on the ledge. It was super nerve-wracking having the top of the food chain just perched above camp,

leisurely gazing down at them without a care in the world. Yeah. And as the afternoon went on, the group went about their routine, but the animal was still there, still watching. And everyone in the group was a bit uneasy. And at first, they spent time on and off, kind of keeping their eyes and keeping track of the animal. They used their zoom lenses on their cameras to get a closer look at it,

who just spent hours resting on its paws, rolling onto its back, kind of like that picture you showed me in the beginning of the episode, just kind of just all around chilling. As the hours passed, the bear to some just seemed like heart of the landscape now. And the uneasiness that they felt in the beginning kind of started to melt away. They started preparing dinner, they cleaned up, and prepared for bed. But this melting of uneasiness was not the case for Matt. He was worried.

And he even suggested that everyone take two-hour shifts, watching the animal throughout the night for safety purposes. But his suggestion was outvoted because they had an electric fence. So three foot electric fence. Maybe if it was like eight feet, I'd be like, yeah, you're good. But three feet? What is that keeping out? I'm just curious.

I don't know. It's supposed to act as deterrent. And I mean, there are some cases where electric fence is rigged also with flares. So if it's like, it's kind of like a trip wire electric fence combo. So if something just... I mean, if fireworks go off if you touch the fence, then I guess it can be three feet tall. But they did not have that. Yeah.

Okay. Just to clarify. Yeah, they did not have that. I'm getting more and more nervous for these people. They packed in for the night and they all went into their tents. Matt cracked open a book before he drifted off to sleep. And that night, another member of the group, Larry, woke up several times to screams and murmurs.

But he found out it was Marta having nightmares and her husband. husband, Kikob, was soothing her back to bed. Each time, though, that he woke up to this, he would peek out of his tent to check on the bear to see if it was still there. And each and every time, he looked, it was until around 11 o'clock at night and the bear had finally gone away. To where? We don't know.

The next day brought a bit of change of plans. It was super cold and rainy. So instead of breaking down camp and trekking all day as planned, they decided, to dedicate the day to exploring again. So they didn't move camp. They kept the camp where it was, and they went off on a hike. They saw more wildlife, including whales in the fjord, and filled the hours with hiking and taking photos.

And they even had a happy hour celebration when they got back to camp, filled with Bacardi 151, mixed with lemonade, and a side of salami and crackers before turning in for their second night in the park. I was just going to say, 151 rum is like my alcohol you know everyone has their alcohol that they can't do anymore 151 rum is my alcohol that I can never do again. Baccarty Dragonberry is mine. Everyone, everyone has one.

Everyone has a night and we all kind of remember it a little bit enough that we know we can't drink it again. Okay, you don't remember, but your body remembers. Your body will violently throw up if you even smell it. You know, what was that song in college was super popular? It was like 151 rum. Malibu-Doo-da-da-da-da-da. Until the cops come. Never again.

Never again, that's for sure. So these people somehow, for some reason, they didn't have a horrific college experience that deterred them from 151. So they had that as their drink, went to bed, everything was good. until it wasn't. At 3.30 a.m., something woke Matt up. For a brief moment, he laid there on his back in the silent stillness until a shadow passed over his eyes.

As his eyes adjusted, the shadow became clear. It was the dark silhouette of a bear. Bear in camp, he managed to yell just moments before the bear descended fully on top of him. The bear was frantically pawing at him, using its 12-inch in diameter paws armed with two-inch long claws, to grab a hold of Matt. But what it was really searching for was Matt's head, and he found it. The bear grabbed a hold of Matt's head with its jaws wrapped around his skull,

hooking under his right jaw. Matt was screaming, he's got me, oh, he's got me, as he attempted to cover his head with his hands, but the bear was mouthing him, crushing his left hand in an instant. Matt felt the bear tugging at him, trying to remove him from the tent, tugging and crushing, tugging and crushing. He could feel the animal's fur rubbing against him. the thin nylon fabric of his tent.

Help me, help me, he was screaming, as the bear successfully ripped him loose from the tent. The bear flung backwards with Matt in his jaws, and they both slammed onto the ground. Matt felt a sharp pain simultaneously in his jaw and his chest and heard the sounds of cracking. His lung had collapsed, and his jaw was smashed. The next thing he knew,

the scenery he was admiring earlier that day was rushing by him in a blur. A mixture of beach and white creamy fur was all he could see. Hot huffs of foul-smelling, seafood breath flooded over Matt's mouth and ears, and saliva poured over his head and torso. He was being dragged towards the water. Still very much conscious, Matt began thinking of his family, his wife, his father, wondering if they would be okay after his death.

On the subject of death, he thought of nature, how kind it was to make a body like this, with no pain in the final moments of life. life. I hope this is how everyone goes, he thought. Any moment now, I'll be in the water, and that's it. Lights out, you're going to die. We all die. This is it. You're going home. Wow. What acceptance in like a moment there. In such a crazy, scary final moment, too. It's not like a peaceful drift off to sleep. No, and he's like, well, I'm thankful this is the way it ends. I don't. I hope everyone gets to experience this kind of calm. And he's getting dragged by a polar bear. By his head.

By his head. I'm like, I don't wish that for myself. Thank you. Well, he had a come to Jesus moment for sure. For sure. To his shock, he was released and he felt his body thud onto the sandy grass of the coast just a few feet from the water. Then muffled screams and the sounds of large paws patting away. He stayed still, pretending to be dead, and then everything went black. Earlier that night, as the group was packing in, Trip lead Rich Gross was going over worst-case scenarios, scanning the campsite and taking mental note of the location of the flare guns and the satellite phone.

For the last 15 years of running Sierra Club outings, this mental checklist was second nature to him. He would do it every night. The tents were configured in a tight cluster, in two rows of three, surrounded by the electric fences. As everyone said good night, he retired into his own tent, double-checking his flare gun location for the last time, and it was right where it needed to be. Cocked and in his boot right next to his head. He awoke to darkness filled with frantic screams.

Someone was calling his name. Rich. Rich! It was Marta. She was screaming for him. Reaching for the gun, he burst out of his tent and scanned the perimeter. The electric fencing was collapsed and crackling in one area, and not far from it. a tent half tattered, half gone, laid in a crumpled mess on the ground.

His eyes were darting back and forth, scanning the area. And about 75 feet away, he spotted it, a large bear running away from camp with a body in its mouth. And at this point, he had no way of knowing who this was. Everything was happening so fast. It was the middle of the night. It was dark. So they didn't, he didn't hear him screaming?

Because Matt was screaming. But this happened so fast. Like he awoke to his name being screamed because Matt screamed right away as the bear grabbed him. So everybody else kind of woke up and so Rich just the first thing that caught his attention was marked as screaming his name. Okay. Because by the time he gets out of his tent, Matt's already 75 feet away. It's happened literally in an instant. Yep.

He raised the flare gun to the bear and fired, shooting the flare directly in the bear's path. Rich watched as the bear dropped the body, which he could clearly see now, was Matt's and the bear retreated about 50 yards away, but not for long. The bear quickly turned around and began running back to collect Matt's body. Rich fired a second flare which landed right in front of the bear's feet and this did it. This finally sent the polar bear running. The moments felt like ages as the group paused for enough time to confirm that the animal was truly gone and not going to charge them if they approached Matt. And after verifying that no one could see the polar bear anymore. They rushed towards Matt and they assumed he was dead. They're like, there's no way he's

alive. As they approached him, he was motionless, but his eyes were open and moving from side to side. His chest was moving up and down. He was alive. Matt was scooped up and brought back to camp where Rick Eisenberg, the retired physician, was waiting. Jumping into action, Rick began working on assessing Matt's condition. He had not practiced medicine for almost 15 years at this point, but he, he knew what to do and he jumped right into action. Matt was bloody, bruised, and had punctures all over him, but he had regained consciousness and was trying the best he could to speak with his jaw shattered, saying, thank you. Oh my God, thank you. Marta called for help and another group member, Marilyn, took the first watch standing guard with a flare in her hand, head on a swivel in case the

bear decided to come back. The fence was toast at this point. The flares were all they had. Marta called the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, Parks Canada, and Base Camp, which was right outside of the park. But it was the middle of the night and they had a difficult time reaching anyone, which is like, you're calling the police. Police don't sleep. Okay. Like, what do you mean? It's like, sorry, we're not on our shift. Yeah, it's like there's 7 a.m. When people come back to the office, yeah, that's not a thing. Back in the makeshift medical tent, Rick examined Matt. The bear's teeth had left punctures on his head, arms, hands, and neck, but he was stable. Marta finally got a hold of help, but it wouldn't be until daybreak.

At 7.30 a.m. a full five hours before a helicopter would reach them. When the helicopter landed, medic Larry Brandridge rushed to Matt and Rick, inquiring on his status and assessing his condition further. They loaded him up onto a stretcher, and the men carried Matt onto the helicopter, and Rick actually climbed in the helicopter with them, and they lifted off. On the ground, the helicopter left a man named Jacko with the remaining Sierra Club members. He was a Parks Canada licensed bear guard and was left to help guard the group until their boat came. And he had a weapon other than a flare gun. He had a rifle, just so everyone's clear.

While he was gathering wood for a fire, he told the group that when they were landing the helicopter, he had been scanning the surrounding area carefully and had noticed a large polar bear within a few hundred yards of their camp. So the polar bear has not left. Has not left. And the group, although this was really unsettling, they were obviously very happy that an armed bear guard was now with them because it would be another 12 hours until a boat came to extract them. It's a long time to be stuck in the same spot a bear attack happened. Mm-hmm. During the flight, Matt was given pain meds and was speaking as best he could with Larry, the

medic, and he was even cracking some jokes with him. His wounds were bleeding, but they weren't gushing, which was good news to the medic. And overall, Larry was very pleased with Matt's condition, although he wasn't out of the woods yet, it could have been and often was far, far worse. You know, the whole, if it's white, good night thing. Yeah, he's alive. reason for that. The Medflight made it to the Torngat Mountains base camp and research center pretty quickly where the helicopter landed and Matt was taken to the medic tent. The bandages placed in the field by Rick were

carefully removed. The bandages on his hand, arms and skull revealed damage but not nearly as bad as Larry had anticipated and he was like I said pretty pleased until he moved the bandage that was laying over his neck. Larry was struck with a ranted smell. There was a hole, the width of a pencil. that went behind his jugular and straight towards his esophagus. He had estimated that Matt had either inhaled or swallowed at least half a liter of blood that had now entered his lungs and were turning rancid. And this changed everything. Matt was not so stable after all.

He was quickly whisked back into the helicopter and transported to Montreal, where he was admitted into the ICU, placed into a medically induced coma, and went into surgery. When he awoke, he was welcomed by the site of his wife. wife who had been notified by one of the group members hours prior and she rushed from Maine to be by his side. Matt's jaw was wired shut, but the tears in his eyes spoke louder than words. I love you and I'm going to make it. In all, the bear had broken several vertebra in Matt's neck, filleted neck, filleted artery, punctured a tendon in his right arm and crushed his jaw. His left hand had full thickness

puncture wounds and his skull was left with dozens of puncture wounds that became severely infected. He had a collapsed lung and significant damage to his larynx that left him unable to speak for weeks and actually resulted in permanent vocal cord damage. So he speaks now with a really rough and raspy voice. His Sierra Club travel companions arrived to the hospital on July 27th and they all took turns going in in small groups and pairs to visit him, which Matt only recalls portions of because he was on a lot of painkillers and pain medication, and it left him really loopy. Fair. His jaw was wired shut, so he couldn't speak, and he also had tubes pouring out of his neck.

He was unable to verbally communicate. But when Rich and Marta arrived at his bedside, he asked for a pen and paper. Where's next year's trip planned? Sign me up. I like the spirit. He's like, if I survive this next year, it's going to be a piece of cake. Let's go. So clearly Matt has a sense of humor, but he wasn't exactly kidding about wanting to be signed up for the next trip.

Because a year later, just 13 months actually, after his incident in Torngat Mountains National Park, he went back to the same park. Yep. Oh. He says, my last trip there got cut off so short. There was more things I wanted to see, more time I wanted to spend there. So he wanted to return once again. He had never been through trauma like that and viewed this trip as an opportunity for a way to kind of work through the trauma he was experiencing and kind of as a trip that would provide some closure for him. Did he get a tall or electric fence this time?

He did not. So he did a couple of things differently. Okay. He arrived in the park and walked into the base camp building where he once again viewed the mandatory bear safety. video. He hopped aboard a boat and he traveled this time with a film crew and two heavily armed guides who also served as bear guards to the site of the incident. So he went right back to his camp. Seal bones and fox carcasses were strewn along the sandy beach and there were polar bear prints dotting the sand. Fresh, his bear guards noted while crouching down to examine the prince,

likely from this morning. Matt pointed out where they first noticed the female polar bear and the cub where his tent was, where the large male bear was hanging out on the ledge, and where he was dragged away towards the shoreline. He was essentially reliving what was quite possibly the worst moments of his life, what was almost the end of his life, with a mixture of jokes, gruff laughs, and misty eyes. Less than 15 minutes after arriving at the incident site, a large, curious bear was spotted. The group took that as their queue to leave and they hopped back aboard the boat that they would be sleeping in for this trip. They were not camping on land.

Much better idea. Yeah. The group spent three more days in total in the park and saw eight more bears. Matt was filled with an immense sense of peace among the landscape and the wildlife with the bears included. He took great comfort in the brother-sister pair of Inuit descent, Maria and Eli, who guarded and guided him. They had been born and raised in the area, and they taught as they led, pointing out different features of the Arctic tundra, plucking edible vegetation, and warning against others. The patches of tall willow were warned against. Eli informed him to avoid them altogether, as the bears frequented them and tended to congregate inside of them.

Shit, Matt reflected. He had used them as cover to relieve himself last year during his trip, walking right into them without a second thought. He half-joke and half-nervously admitted. well, shit, a bear could have gotten me then too in a particularly vulnerable moment. Just shows you should have a guide with you. Well, yeah. And that he was just totally like unaware. Like didn't even think twice about it.

Didn't know a lot of information. And if you had a guide with you, they could tell you all this stuff. In Matt's mind, getting taken out by a bear wouldn't have been the worst way to go. Regarding death, Matt says everyone has to take the journey alone. Getting taken out by a bear is better than wasting away in a nurse. home for 15 years, losing your mind, and shitting your pants. So that's his view. Obviously, everyone's different. But that is valid. Regarding life, though, Matt is still outliving it. He spends ample time outdoors, has gone on another Sierra Club trip, this time backpacking through the

Sierra Nevadas, and he retains his sense of humor. Sitting on his desk at Pine Tree Legal is a polar bear figurine. Gotta keep the memory there. And he did, I, I didn't see anywhere that confirmed this, but in several of the articles, I read on his story, he was planning on getting two polar bear tattoos on his forearms. So he might be out there in Maine. If you see a guy working as a lawyer with two polar bears on his arms, this is the mat that we're talking about. As far as recreating in the wild, especially a location so remote and untamed, obviously this comes with risk. And while Parks Canada and the members of the Sierra Club outing recognize that, there was a review of the events along with an investigation to determine what exactly unfolded that July and why.

Judy Roll, superintendent of Torngat Mountains National Park, said, quote, we want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence, that we are providing the right messages in the right way. I don't think that we've done anything wrong, but there may be some things we could have done. better. Regarding the excursion, Parks Canada Ranger Peter Deering commented, quote, it occurred in an area where we would have and did recommend the group not camp in or travel through because here, referring to the Tornedat Mountains National Park, bears are typically found throughout the coast and near the water. And Judy, the other Parks Canada Ranger, said, you would have never seen one of our bear guards agreeing to camp there. Our folks here would go a minimum of 10 kilometers, which is roughly 6.2 miles inland. And even then, you have to be very,

very careful. Right where they camped, that's polar bear highway. So they did say to not camp along the shore, but they sure shit didn't tell them to go over six miles inland off away from shore. Yeah. They're like, oh, 150 yards offshore. Okay, great. Like, if they had that information, they would have done things differently. Yeah, I mean, when you were first describing it and you kind of mentioned at the beginning of the story, like, you don't be right on shore. But then when you were describing their campsite, they could watch polar bears on the shore. I was picturing them still extremely close, which obviously, if you're at a water resource, you're going to come across all types of wildlife, including huge predators, which in this case were polar bears. It seems pretty

apparent that park employees were taken aback when they learned where exactly the Sierra Club group chose to camp. But according to Marta, their group was never informed of this polar bear highway in any of their email communications or in-person conversations when they informed Parks Canada of their itinerary while they were at base camp and not once did someone advise against it or raise concern when it was communicated. Because remember, they extensively went over their itinerary, their plans. Yes, obviously they picked the camp when they were actually physically there. But like even when they said they were going to that particular fjord where that. that location was now dubbed Polar Bear Highway, no one raised an eyebrow about that. Yeah. It was actually quite the contrary because at the time, the area they chose to camp in was advertised

as like a fun place to go. Like they didn't just come up with this on their own. And then they, and you had said that they saw remnants of an old camp that was there. I'm curiousity. I just thought of it. But there's a lot of polar bears here. It's polar bear highway. It's next to the water.

Do these polar bears drink water? I don't. That's a great question. I don't know. They're like, oh, are they there because there's food resources there because other animals go there? Well, we're going to get into that a little bit, actually. Okay, cool. But to finish up this little section, the advice to move the 10 kilometers inland was not mentioned on the bear safety brochure or in the safety video at the time. And when question about this later on, Peter Dearing, one of the Parks Canada employees, said it was likely because the group's trip occurred before they had a very firm understanding of the dangers that that particular area presented. Parks Canada now requires any organization that leads a group into the park to apply for a business like, that includes a polar bear protection plan that outlines how they will protect themselves from the animals, including specifics like how guides will operate in polar bear country, where they will camp, and how they would respond to a bear sighting. And although it is still not required, it is highly recommended to travel with bear guards. A lot of animal encounter stories we have covered in the past have some sort of aspect of closure to them, meaning that the animal was tracked and put down

and we kind of gleaned some insight into maybe some answers about why the encounter or the attack happened based off of the condition of the individual. Like if you remember injuries or malnourishment have been documented in several of the stories that we have discussed, like the Sava Lions, the Chumpawat Tiger, and obviously the Grizzlies and Glacier. But in this case, the bear responsible for the attack on Matt was not killed. So it's impossible to know if there was an underlying prompt to this attack. It could have possibly been that this individual animal sustained an injury that made it difficult to hunt its typical prey. It could have been young or inexperienced. Or it could have been adapting to a rapidly changing environment. Climate change.

Climate change. Here we go. So it would be a gargantuan task to discuss global climate change thoroughly. So to give just a glimpse into how big in the years between 1979 and 2000, 2014, roughly 695,000 square miles, which is about the size of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Utah, and most of Idaho combined of Arctic Sea ice has been lost. That's really scary. The implications of that loss are far reaching, and that statistic is now nine years old. So who knows what it looks like now.

Someone knows who it looks like now. We could probably easily Google that, but the statistic that... Someone knows what it looks like now. The statistic I found, yeah, was I enjoyed the reference to state sizes to kind of give everyone a visual of how much that is. Instead of focusing on the global sea ice climate change relationship, let's instead focus on how climate change is affecting Tornat National Park itself. In general,

the area is seeing longer summers. The landscape is experiencing what's called shrubification, which is when shrubs will grow taller, bigger, and appear in previously unknown locations, all of which has been obviously scientifically studied, but also noticed by the

locals. The landscape is much greener and the willows are growing taller and thicker, providing increased cover for bears to hide in, which makes it much more difficult for bear guards to spot them. But not only does this affect bears, it affects people. Excessive shrubs have an impact on travel by making transportation via snowmobiles more dangerous and has also impacted local food production and gathering with reduced berry availability and productivity, like an abundance

and diversity, which negatively impacts the local caribou population of that important food source, is now impacting the local Inuit people who rely on the caribou. Everything's connected. It all comes back. Everything is connected. Longer summers also translates into more thawing of the sea ice. Compared to the 1970s, there's an average of 50 days longer each season of no ice in the area. Of course, this is a huge problem for polar bears in particular, as they have evolved to live and hunt on the sea ice. The bears spend their winters there, but with the rapid melting of the ice, the animals are being forced to spend more and more time on land. The bears coming to land seem more curious and bolder than they have in previous decades as well. One local commented that when they were growing up, 40 years ago, life was way different. Polar bear sightings were much less frequent, and when venturing outdoors for recreation, hunting or fishing, carrying a weapon wasn't a worry, whereas now it would be foolish to not carry a weapon or a deterrent. So how does all of this affect polar bear behavior? And what does that mean

for polar bear human interactions. Between 1960 and 2009, there was a reported 47 attacks by polar bears on people, ranging between 7 to 12 per decade. But between 2010 and 2014, when the sea ice reached record lows, there were 15 attacks, the greatest number ever recorded in a four-year period. Also, since 2000, 88% of these attacks have occurred between July and December, when sea ice is at the lowest of the year. After each bear episode we cover,

we almost always receive a message or an email from someone with this little jingle. If it's black, fight back. If it's brown, lay down. And if it's white, good night. As a general rule of thumb regarding bear human interactions and what to do in encounters, polar bears have clearly been stereotyped as being aggressive, hence the if it's white, good night. But it's important to note that they are normally constantly. cautious in confrontations with people and will choose to escape rather than fight.

Well, fed bears rarely engage with people, but hungry animals can be very unpredictable. As we talked about earlier, polar bears are stealth hunters, meaning the victim is more often than not entirely unaware of their presence until it's too late. Land polar bear encounters are more likely to be predatory in nature as well and are almost always fatal. As a response to the increase in bear-human interactions, many Inuit communities, have called on the government to increase legal hunting quotas, citing that the bear populations have increased to unsafe levels. However, it's also important to note just because people are seeing

more and more polar bears doesn't actually mean there are more of them. Cidings alone is not a reliable indicator of a population at face value, because as we just talked about, their patterns are changing, they're coming to land more and more often, seeking alternative food sources. And although it's difficult to estimate the current global population of polar bears, biologists place a working estimate between 20 and 31,000 worldwide with a sharp downward trend. US geological survey scientists have predicted that two-thirds of the world's polar bears may disappear by 2050. Depending on the country, the IUCN Red List categorizes them as either vulnerable,

of special concern, threatened, or rare. But I do need to mention that it's really important that many Inuit communities are really frustrated with the disconnect between traditional management and knowledge of polar bears and what some view as a dominant Western science approach. There was a document submitted by an Inuit land claim organization that says, in part, quote, pressure to conserve and protect polar bears from national and international environmental and non-governmental organizations, climate change advocates, and the general public at large has created contention about the status of the polar bear population.

The disconnect between the sentiment in certain scientific communities and Inuit knowledge has been pronounced. So there's kind of, that's kind of a point of contention for a lot of Inuit communities that are dealing directly with the implications of this heightened and quite frankly very scary human polar bear interaction situation that's going on. Like, you know, for us living here in a non-Arctic community that never has to face polar bears and deal with the very real threat of them are making decisions for people who are dealing directly with them as far as polar bear management. And that's really upsetting to a lot of the Inuit communities.

It doesn't make sense. Someone with no experience or understanding what's going on to be making those decisions. It's kind of a point of contention. And it's something that is being worked on as we speak, just kind of trying to find the middle ground between like, okay, well, we understand the frustration, but this is an endangered species that is sharply declining. We can't just let people kill them willy-nilly either. So it's just a, it's a tight rope walk, you know, a fine balance. But I just wanted to mention that because it is something that it's a big deal. And it's been, it makes things complicated. We can't just say, well,

polar bears are endangered, so we're not killing them anymore. We just can't say that. it's just such a complicated question with a lot of complicated answers you know there's not it's hard to find what exactly the right answer is especially i don't know if you i mean you could go down this part as much as you want but humans are contributing to the rap people always say climate change a lot of people say climate change is inevitable it would be happening anyway but humans are the reason that it is accelerating at the rate it is so are we also going to be accelerating the rate where animals are are going into extinction even more, even though we're already the cause of it? Or do we adjust to what animals have to do now because we've caused this? Exactly. It's just the one thing that came to mind this episode was, oh, what a tangled web we weave. Like, it's just so complicated. And there's no one easy answer. And I mean, like you said, we could also, we could go off of this forever. It's not just polar bear management. It's all large. carnivore management, there's always someone being directly affected, whether it's lions or

cougars, grizzlies, wolves, polar bears. When there's a large predator, there's always going to be conflicts, and there's always going to be two sides to the story and two different opinions on how to manage those species. All I'm saying is that there's no cut and dry, black and white answer. And that's difficult sometimes to swallow because polar bears are like the poster children for climate change. And you see images of starving polar bears on like a small little piece of sea ice out in the middle of nowhere it breaks your heart it breaks your heart but it's not just like a well save the polar bears no matter what situation clearly there are many disagreements on certain aspects of polar bear management but is what is not up for debate is that climate change is affecting polar bears overall

steve amstrup the chief scientist at polar bears international summarizes that simply by saying The change is showing up in polar bears as unusual distributions and movements, unusual feeding patterns, more cannibalism events, declining stature. So the animals are not growing as fast. And they're actually getting smaller in stature individually over time. And there's declining survival rates of bears, i.e. more bears are starving to death. And there's also one last little tidbit. There's also the Pizzley. Have you heard of this? What's the Pizzley? The Pizzley is a polar bear grizzly hybrid situation. Oh, they're starting to breed together because they're living in the same environments now?

So they're quite rare as of now, but they have been documented in the wild. As grizzly bear and polar bear habitat is starting to overlap, with polar bears moving further south and grizzlies moving further north due to the shift in climates, hybridization is beginning to occur, which depending on what scientist you ask could be either a good thing or a bad thing. But in conclusion, unabated global warming is going to affect all species and all ecosystems eventually. It just so happens that polar bears are already being affected because there is such a direct relationship between their habitat and overall global temperature. At face value and at first glance, what happened to Matthew Dyer in July of 2013 in Torngat Mountains National Park was a total freak accident, an unlucky hand. And while that does hold true, upon closer inspection, there is way more to this story, and there are more victims than one. And that is it. Well, thank you for telling that story. I think that I can

collectively say for every single person listening that we're stoked that you did a bear attack episode. And I'm stoked that you tied it into one, just facts about polar bears, but then also tying it into real-time issues that are going on. I think it's such a fun way to make people interested and you hear a bear attack you want to know why you want to know what's going on and you really pulled that all together into one so i think this was a really cool episode to do well thank you i definitely had to reel it in because there's just so much information on this and it's such a complex topic and of course it's you know it's not easy to kind of make concise because there are so many moving parts and like when i first heard

heard of this story. I was like, oh, like, what a, what a random unlucky, like, event. Like, the chances of you getting attacked by a polar bear. Like, that's nuts. Like, that's just a really unfortunate event. But there's reasons to this stuff. And I, we get this question a lot. Like, what is our favorite topic to research and why? And mine is definitely animal episodes because, like I mentioned earlier, there's almost always a reason for this. Like, yeah, sometimes, there could be a rogue animal, a rogue incident, like just, it's really unlucky and unfortunate and it's just a complete accident and it sucks. But more often than not, there's a driving force behind that, whether it's altered behavior because of food conditioning that we do or habitat fragmentation that

is a result of us or climate change or injury or whatever. There's just, there's always more to the story. And I think that that is part of the reason I just love doing animal episodes because the encounter itself is crazy. Like Matt's story in and of itself is nuts. But what's more interesting to me is what led up to that in the aftermath and what we can learn from that and the information we can glean from a story like this. And Matt and his entire group, Sierra Club group, did not want advocated against them tracking down and killing that bear. And they understand, And, you know, they went into it knowing the risks. And although it was a terrible outcome, it could have been worse, but they, it was something

in the back of their mind that they were prepared for and kind of weren't shocked by. And what a terrible way to like, if they had, if that had been something that had happened where they did kill the bear, they went into that bear's habitat in a location where almost no people venture into. And that happened. It would just be, it would be really sad to see something. like that happened in a situation that it would probably be very rare that there would be another bear attack on someone else. Right.

Yeah. So, um, and I of course like also left out the entire subject of there are communities in the Arctic and subarctic that are like becoming basically like polar bear fortresses. Like they're leading kind of this initiative of successfully living in polar bear country where there's a huge rise in polar bear human interactions and kind of what they're doing to successfully live in this kind of rapidly changing environment and changing behaviors with the bears and all that. Because obviously, people have been coexisting with polar bears for hundreds of thousands of years. Yeah. But there's just such a shift in the typical historical polar bear behavior that now we need to change. And it's like

there are certain communities that are doing that instead of just eradicating all the bears, they're also adapting to this change. They're learning to live with them. That's really cool. That's a whole other thing. But we're already, I'm sure, like, you know, very, well, I'm good with polar bears for now. I literally had like polar bears dancing in my head for the last week in my dreams, in my mind, sharing polar bear facts with random people. Like, do you know that polar bears don't drink water?

Do you know that's a trivia question? Like that's something everyone's going to get at trivia. I don't know. I would be so pumped. Every time I go to trivia, I love going to trivia, bar trivia. I wait patiently for my time to shine with like an animal category. And it never fucking happens. There's categories about everything except for animals.

I'm like, what is going on? Am I going to the wrong trivia here? Like, what is happening? Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed that. There is tons of information about everything we talked about from the sea ice decline to Matt himself, his story. There's a lot of videos of him out there talking about his story, sharing his story. And so if you want to learn more, there's all those resources out there for you. But in the meantime, I'm good with polar bears for now. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next week.

In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. There might be a polar bear. Okay. Goodbye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes.

For information on the show, to shop our merch store, sign up for our newsletter and more, visit npaddpodcast.com. And if you're enjoying the show, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to Progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed, who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2020. Potential savings will vary.