A grizzly bear travels across the tundra in Yukon in August 2009.
A grizzly has people in Wekweti, N.W.T., concerned for their safety.
(Rick Bowmer/Associated Press)

Hunters in Wekweti, N.W.T., are tracking an injured grizzly bear after the animal killed a dog and charged some men around suppertime on Sunday.

"We got to shoot it.… We can't just leave it like that," said Roy Judas, who shot at the bear after it charged him and four other men in the community 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife. "He's a grizzly bear. He's big, he's wounded too, so it's scary."

Judas saw the bear at around 5 p.m. on Sunday, after it took a chained dog out of a yard.

"He was tied up with a chain — chain was pretty big," said Judas, who estimates the dog weighed 70 to 80 pounds. "He took the dog with the chain on it. He just ripped that chain off — he dragged it all the way up — just like paper. Holy smokes, ever strong bear, man."

Judas and the other men shot into the air to scare the bear, but it dragged the dog about 1,500 metres, Judas estimated.

The bear then charged the men.

"Probably around three times he charged to us," Judas said. "He just run and then everybody shot and then he just runs back again and then, like, after it'd been shot, and then just runs back towards us again and then he runs back again, so, like, it's pretty dangerous."

The men had to be careful not to fire towards the town as they tried to down the bear, Judas said.

"We can't shoot towards town, so, like, just try [to be] on the safe side."
'Scary' situation

They followed the bear's blood trail to where it crossed a river, but they quit looking for it because it was dark.

"There's lots of trees, like, close to each other," Judas said, calling the situation "scary."

Judas, who has lived most of his life in Wekweti, was taught to hunt by his dad, and planned to go out with other men during the daylight hours Tuesday to try to find and kill the bear.

People in the town of fewer than 150 people want the bear dead, Judas said.

The bear has been hanging around town for a while and people are nervous, said Nick Lamouelle, another Wekweti resident.

Lamouelle has seen a number of grizzlies, but usually he doesn't worry much, because they tend to just pass through. This bear is another matter, he said.

"We try to keep the kids from playing outside. People are worried and really concerned about it because it's getting too close," Lamouelle said.

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