Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Chesterfield Inlet (May 29/02) - Just as the Northern Lights have seen strange sights, so has Andre Tautu.

The Chesterfield Inlet resident was out hunting east of his community last Wednesday, May 16, when he saw something odd moving on the sea ice of Hudson bay.

"A few days before I was out polar bear hunting for the night. I caught one and went back home and a couple days later I went back out again," recalled Tautu, from a hotel room in Rankin Inlet.

"I was about 12 miles outside of Chesterfield Inlet and there were lots of seals on the sea ice. But one of them seemed too big to be a seal," he said.

Tautu watched the animal closely and was able to judge by its gait that it was a grizzly bear. While the mammals very rarely spend time on the coast of Hudson Bay, Tautu became familiar with them, and their movements, when he lived in Baker Lake.

"I knew that animal didn't belong there and I didn't want it in my area."

Tautu tried to chase the grizzly away, but then the community's approaching spring fishing derby came to mind. He knew a lot of women and children would be on the sea ice during the Victoria Day long weekend and he didn't want to risk leaving the bear to attack his friends and neighbours.

"I thought it might attack so I decided to shoot it," he said.

Tautu figures the three-metre bear was about 10 years old and wandered onto the sea ice far from home as a result of a warming climate.

"It probably came down from Baker Lake," he said.

Tautu skinned the bear and left the meat on the ice and took the pelt home. The first thing he did after returning home was contact the local wildlife office to inform them of the kill and his reasoning for it. His second task was to advise people he'd spotted and killed a grizzly bear so far from its home.

"I had to go on local radio and tell people where I shot it because of the long weekend," he explained. "After that, my phone started ringing. I was the talk of the town after that."