QAUSUITTUQ/RESOLUTE - As Valerie Amarualik hunted two male polar bears in two months, the 17-year-old said she learned the importance of staying calm.

"When we chase it, I get excited, and then, when I shoot it, I'm nervous. But then it actually comes to seeing if the bear is dead, and I think that's when I'm the most nervous," she said.

"It was a very, very fun experience. I really liked it a lot. It was very exciting, kind of overwhelming."

On March 3 or 4, recounted Amarualik, while on a camping and caribou hunting trip with her older brother to Freeman's Cove, the duo chased a polar bear for a good 10 minutes until it got tired and lay down. As she was about to shoot it, she said, the animal stood up but she shot it and it fell. As the polar bear was still alive, she shot it twice more with her brother, then giving the bear the fatal shot.

They were a liitle more than 90 kilometres north-northwest of Resolute, on the ice.

"I felt scared. I was happy, excited and nervous. I thought maybe the bear was just playing dead and if we went close, it might jump at us," she said. "I've always wanted to catch a bear and once I caught it, I was very happy."

They cut up the polar bear, brought home the hide, skull and legs but left the body in the ice, she added.

"I kept the hide and we did eat some of the meat. It was very good," she said.

Back on the ice May 8 on a hunting trip with her uncle and father, Amarualik said the latter saw a polar bear, so she jumped into the sled box and they sped off, chasing the animal. As they reached a smoother ice patch, her father told her to shoot but she shot too high so they kept chasing the animal. Having reached another patch of smooth ice, Amarualik said she missed the polar bear again when she shot it. Her father unhooked the sled from the snowmobile and they continued the chase until they once again reached smooth ice, she added.

Amarualik said this time the bullet nicked the bear under the front leg before she took another shot that caught it on the side. Not even 10 minutes after first spotting the animal, Amarualik had killed her second polar bear 33 kilometres west of Resolute on the ice.

"I was very proud of myself - two bears in two months. The second one I caught I thought it was special because my dad was there," she said.

Born in Yellowknife and raised in Resolute, Amarualik is now a Grade 12 student at Qarmartalik School, where she recounted her experience to grades 4 and 5 students. How scared she was chasing the bear is what she said she hopes the students remember about her presentation.

"When I was telling them about my bear hunt, they were really excited and they were asking lots of questions. They seemed really interested in my polar bear hunt," she said. "My whole story, I hope they learned from it, how they should react when they see a bear or what to do when they see a bear."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.