Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Updated, Friday July 4, 2008

Peel River - Inuvik elder Tommy Thrasher has seen his fair share of bears throughout his life. So when Aurora College set up its annual hide tanning camp at Eight Mile south of Fort McPherson, Thrasher was recruited to stand guard in the evenings. "This is bear country. Black bears, grizzly bears. They're on both sides of the river," said Thrasher.

Tommy Thrasher spent two weeks watching for bears at Aurora College's hide tanning camp. He said nature came calling while he was answering the call of nature one morning.

Although the sun is up all the time at this time of year, activity and traffic make enough noise to keep the bears at bay during the day. He said he would usually start making his rounds to cabins after the ferry shut down and people went to bed.

"The women would work until eleven. Then after midnight I would go and check in two or three places. I mostly spot those bears down by the shore. Twice they were about 75 feet away from me," said Thrasher.

He carried a rifle with him while on patrol. When the bears came too close, he would fire a warning shot to chase them off.

Thrasher didn't work alone. There were two dogs at the camp to keep their eyes and ears open as well. Early one morning the dogs alerted him to a visitor.

"Early in the morning, about 5:30, I heard the dogs barking so I went out. There was a bear by the garbage dump. I just yelled at him to go," said Thrasher

He ran inside to get his gun, and when he came back out the bear had come even closer. Thrasher fired off a warning shot and the bear ran into the bushes.

After that, he waited a while, just to make sure the bear was really gone.

"I took my time. I kept watching but he was gone. So next thing I went to the outhouse. I was in there when my wife yelled, 'Bear!' I just ran out and grabbed my gun while zipping my fly. I shot twice underneath him," said Thrasher.

That was enough to scare him off for good.

"I got him going at least. That’s what I was supposed to do," he said.

Thrasher must have done a god job because everyone who attended the camp made it home OK. No bears were harmed either.

"I never shoot to kill. I shoot to scare," he admitted.

Just don't tell that to the bears at Eight Mile.