A father has been mauled to death by a polar bear in Canada while protecting his children. The incident has raised questions around the promotion of walking bear tours. Aaron Gibbons, 31, was killed by a polar bear on Sentry Island, about 10km from Arviat, on the western shore of Hudson Bay in Nunavut, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. The man's uncle, Gordy Kidlapik, said on Twitter his nephew died a "hero".<doc-sep>A father in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut is being hailed as a hero after he died protecting his three young children from a polar bear attack. Aaron Gibbons, 31, was at a popular fishing and hunting spot near the hamlet of Arviat, on the western shores of Hudson Bay, on Tuesday when the bear appeared, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Gibbons was unarmed at the time of the attack. He was on a small island enjoying a day out with his children, Gordy Kidlapik, Gibbons’ uncle, told the Winnipeg Free Press. “The bear started to stalk or charge one of his children,” he said. “He told his children to run back to the boat and put himself between his children and the bear.” His school-age children made it safely to the boat and called for help on the CB radio. Kidlapik was among those who heard the call, describing it as “heartbreaking”. Police said Gibbons was pronounced dead at the scene. “He died a hero,” said Kidlapik. The bear was shot and killed by other adults who were nearby. The attack left Arviat, a small hamlet that is home to some 2,600 people, reeling. “It’s just really incredibly sad,” a local lawmaker, John Main, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). “We’re a small community and when something like this happens, it affects the whole community.” Attacks by polar bears are rare; the last polar bear mauling in the region is believed to have happened 18 years ago in Rankin Inlet, about 200km north of Arviat. Nunavut’s department of environment said conservation officers were investigating the circumstances of the attack to determine whether factors such as the bear’s age or health played a role in the attack. Arviat is located within the range of the Western Hudson Bay polar bear population, which numbers around 840 bears, according to 2016 estimates. In recent years, local hunters and elders in the community have reported a spike in sightings of polar bears around the community and noted that they seem to be less afraid of humans. The World Wildlife Fund, which in 2010 partnered with Arviat to launch a program to monitor the perimeter of the community from September to December, has linked the increase to climate change. Sea ice is taking longer to form each autumn, meaning bears are spending more time on the coastline, Paul Crowley, director of the organisation’s arctic program, told the CBC in 2016. “It’s partially because the climate is changing and partly because of attractants in the communities like the dumps.” On Wednesday, Kidlapik, Gibbons’ uncle, floated his own theory, pointing to polar bear tours based in Churchill, Manitoba – about 250km south of Arviat – for acclimatising the bears to the presence of humans. “You’ll see pictures of tourists touching a bear through the fence,” he said, while other outfitters offered walking tours near the bears. The bears then migrated from Manitoba, where the tours are based, towards northern communities like Arviat, he said. He speculated that the tours could be a factor in explaining the bears’ shifting behaviour, noting that 10 or 15 years ago, they would flee at the sound of an all-terrain vehicle or snowmobile. “Today, bears are not doing that. They hang around. They won’t run away. They’ll go on the trail beside you,” he said. “Bears are losing whatever fear they have of humans.” When asked about any potential link between polar bear tours and the attack, Nunavut’s department of environment declined to comment.<doc-sep>A young Inuit father has died while protecting his children from a rare polar bear attack in Canada’s eastern Arctic territory. Aaron Gibbons, a 31-year-old resident of the Inuit hamlet of Arviat on the southern tip of Nunavut, reportedly encountered the bear on Sentry Island, a popular hunting and fishing spot situated about 10 kilometres away from the hamlet, on the west coast of Hudson Bay. “My qangiaq [nephew] died a hero today,” Gibbons’ uncle, Gordy Kidlapik, said. “The bear surprised him and his children, so he put himself between them and the bear to let them escape. The bear had no fear.” “To hear…his young daughter having to call on CB radio and crying to her grandmother, my aik, immediately after the mauling...we were very helpless. To hear my aik calling out to my qangiaq, asking if he’s okay...very heart breaking. His body was brought in at 11:15.” Gibbons, who apparently was armed with a rifle that was out of reach at the time of the incident, was pronounced dead at the scene. Ecologists warn that polar bear attacks on humans are becoming increasingly common due to climate change driving bears onto the land.<doc-sep>
A 31-year-old man was attacked and killed by a polar while he was trying to protect his three daughters in Century Island outside Arviat, Canada, on Tuesday. Gordy Kidlapik said that his nephew Aaron Gibbons was out with his children for a walk, along with some other families, on the island. This was when the bear surprised them, Kidlapik told The Toronto Star. ADVERTISEMENT “The bear had started to stalk the children,” Kidlapik was quoted in the report as saying. He added that Gibbons protected his daughters by shielding them from the bear and telling them to run back to their nearby boat. Gibbons’ kids made it back to the boat, but were crying over the citizen band radio. “They were calling for help… and explaining what was happening,” Kidlapik said of Gibbons’ daughters. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrived on the scene, they pronounced the victim dead. The bear was later “put down.” Kidlapik also raised his concern on some organizations offering to get up-close sightings of polar bears. “Personally, I’ve been raising that just as a concern, and that we’re noticing more bears who have lost their fear approaching humans,” he expressed. “It wasn’t like that before.” The local Department of Environment’s director of policy planning and legislation Daniel Pimentel said that their conservation officers will investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack. He added that the incident was unlikely in the area, since the last polar bear attack happened 18 years ago. Katrina Hallare /ra RELATED STORIES: Inuka, first polar bear born in the tropics, is put down Coldilocks, the oldest captive polar bear in the US, dies