A professor is found a few meters from a polar bear

Photo courtesy
When the polar bear was shot dead, several citizens from the northern village of Puvirnituq gathered around the animal.

Stephanie Gendron

Wednesday, 7 march, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Wednesday, 7 march, 2018 00:00

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The heart of a teacher in Rivière-du-Loup working in Nunavik has made a turn when she became face to face with a polar bear that was at least 20 meters away from it.

This would be the first time that a polar bear will approach as near to the village of Puvirnituq, in Nord-du-Québec, according to what Inuit have said to Julie Côté, who teaches there since December.

The professor was walking on a road on the outskirts of the village, Sunday afternoon. It was close enough to see the homes and hear the dogs yelping.

Like Leonardo DiCaprio

She was staring at the ground while walking to avoid holes in the snow. She raised her eyes and saw the bear, more yellow than white, on a snow mound at least 20 feet away from her.

“It’s been a while as I walked toward him. I was frozen in place. Your heart stops and you don’t move, ” said Ms. Côté.

Fortunately, she has not cried and has not run immediately, reactions advised against. She waited a minute and looked back down the hill and into the distance. As soon as she lost sight, she started to run towards the village to alert the police.

“I said to myself : “it is thus well con die like this ! I’m not going to die shredded by a bear, I’ll be part of the statistics” in “, she narrated.

She imagined in a scene from the film The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio, who is attacked by a bear.

Photo courtesy

Julie Hand, who is a native of Rivière-du-Loup, teach in Nunavik for the month of December.

The police have questioned

The police did not flood, because never before a polar bear had approached so near to the residences. They are returned on the spot and have seen the traces of the legs of the animal to the side of those boots that the teacher had made in the snow, during the escape.

“He had me followed. I had brought with me to the village, ” said Julie Side.

Almost at the same time, the bear was shot by an inuit hunter whose spouse had seen between two houses.

Inuit hunters older have estimated that the bear was about two years old. The day before a major snow storm descended on the region, and some think that he could lose.

The fur of the beast was kept as a trophy and the meat shared among the people of the village. Julie Côté has preferred not to eat.

“They to me have proposed, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t cook and eat it, ” confessed the teacher.