Tuktoyaktuk hunter Robert Gruben Jr. harvested a 454-kg polar bear on the sea ice about 600 kilometres from the community on April 13. - photo courtesy of Robert Gruben Jr.

TUKTOYAKTUK
When Robert Gruben Jr. heard the telltale signs of a polar bear outside his tent on the sea ice outside of Tuktoyaktuk, he had no idea how big that bear would be.

"It's a big, big bear, really humungous," said Gruben Jr.

Gruben Jr. had driven about 600 kilometres from Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea ice on a three-week trip hunting polar bears.

He left the community at the end of March.

Gruben Jr. said the bear he caught was more than 11-feet tall and weighed about 454 kilograms - 1,000 lbs.

He said he was asleep in his tent when the bear arrived at about 5:30 a.m. on April 13. He said the night before, he had been cutting up seal meat, which he ate before going to bed.

He said the smell of seal is likely what attracted the bear to his campsite.

"I'm telling myself, 'wow this has gotta be big,'" he said. "I'm scared already."

Gruben Jr. said after shooting the bear, he realized how large the animal really was.

"The neck was the shape of a 10-gallon drum," he said. "That's the size the neck was."

Gruben Jr. said while he has caught bears taller than this one, this bear - which was an old male - was definitely larger.

He said he received a hero's welcome when he arrived back in Tuktoyaktuk with his catch.

"The elders get to eat the bear meat," he said. "It's really a delicacy for the elders, the bear feet."

Hunting for polar bear is not an easy task, Gruben Jr. said.

"It's really hard to get bears nowadays," he said. "I had to wait three weeks for the one I wanted."

Gruben Jr. said he saw what he believed was the same bear about five days before making his catch.

"I saw it about five days earlier, the tracks and the open water," he said. "I'm assuming that's the one that came to me."

Gruben Jr. said he saw large polar bear tracks on the ice after watching a polar bear swimming toward the sea ice.

"I could see it coming towards the main ice, that's how the big ones come, that's the truth," he said.

Gruben Jr. said years of experience have taught him that keeping quiet and being patient are key to a successful hunt.

"If you have your Ski-Doo on, they'll run away and run in the water and you'll never see it again," he said. It took me three weeks to play it smart. I had a lot of determination and effort to get this one."

He said being smart on the land also means paying attention to weather and wind conditions.

"It's really precise," he said. "You have to learn to read the weather. You have to imagine what the animals are thinking."

Gruben Jr. said he was 24 years old before he caught his first bear. Before then, he hunted wolves, wolverine and other animals until he gained enough knowledge.

"It takes lots of experience and knowing what you're doing," he said. "It's not for greenhorns out on the ice."

Gruben Jr. said one threat constantly on his mind was the possibility of an ice floe breaking away and carrying him out to sea.

"I was worried about the ice breaking off on me. I was really worried about that," he said. "The ice gets smaller and smaller when it breaks off. You don't have very long to live."

He said he carries a satellite phone just in case.

"I do a lot of travelling and sometimes, I don't know if I'm coming back," he said. "Nowadays, we have satellite phones. That helps."

But Gruben Jr. said this trip was worth it. The bear's pelt is being sold for about $15,000.

"That's a reasonable price for a big one like that," he said. "This trip paid a lot of my bills."

Gruben Jr. said Russian hunters looking to hire him as a polar bear hunting guide have also contacted him.

"I got a lot of compliments and I got some guys that are interested in me taking them out hunting next year," he said. "They're in their 40s like myself."

He said the money and guiding trip will allow him to spend more time doing what he loves.

"I love to hunt. I've been doing it since I was a kid," he said.

"I get a lot of caribou and I feed my family. It keeps me going, keeps me fit."

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