{"id":484402,"date":"2026-02-19T03:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484402\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:16:08","slug":"trucks-snowmobiles-patrolling-iqaluit-after-polar-bear-sighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484402\/","title":{"rendered":"Trucks, snowmobiles patrolling Iqaluit after polar bear sighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated on Feb. 18 at 5:55 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

People in trucks and on snowmobiles were on the lookout for a polar bear in Iqaluit late Wednesday afternoon after the Government of Nunavut reported one had been sighted in the city\u2019s plateau area.<\/p>\n

Residents were advised to exercise caution and be aware of their surroundings in a GN news release issued just after 3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

By about 4:30 p.m., drivers in about a dozen pickup trucks as well as two on snowmobiles and carrying rifles were seen driving around the plateau area.<\/p>\n

One man on a snowmobile, who declined to be identified, said he was patrolling to make sure no children were outside in the area where the bear was seen.<\/p>\n

Two white GN vehicles were also nearby, though it wasn\u2019t clear if they were wildlife officers.<\/p>\n

At the same time, residents were seen out walking in the city, either unaware of or unconcerned by the reported polar bear sighting.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

In the release, the GN advised anyone who sees a bear or evidence of a bear to contact the wildlife office at 867-975-7780 or 867-222-1555.<\/p>\n

Polar bear sightings in Iqaluit are rare.<\/p>\n

In 2016, one was spotted and ultimately killed by wildlife officers near an Iqaluit campground. And in 2019, the City of Iqaluit issued a warning after a reported sighting, though wildlife officers were unable to confirm the presence of a bear.<\/p>\n

With files from Daron Letts<\/p>\n

Note: This story was updated to include further information on patrols in the city<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated on Feb. 18 at 5:55 p.m. ET People in trucks and on snowmobiles were on the lookout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-484402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}