'Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye': 5 stories from a family's time near the Arctic

Churchill, Manitoba, is known as the polar bear capital of the world because so many of the animals make their home there. Author Zac Unger moved his family there for one 'bear season' so they could experience life in the polar bear wild. Check out some of Unger's stories as found in his book "Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye."

5. Close encounter

Chris Wattie/Reuters

Unger took his two-year-old son, Zeke, grocery shopping and had let him out of the stroller while he tried to fold it back up when Zeke suddenly yelled, "Dog!" "'Big dog,' Zeke babbled on," Unger wrote. "'Bark woof.' I looked toward the spot where Zeke was pointing with two outstretched hands. 'It my dog,' he said, toddling into the street. What I saw on the low rise across the street from our house was not Zeke's dog. In fact, it wasn't a dog at all. Instead, a polar bear sauntered from right to left, sniffing its way along the hillside toward Ladoon's Castle.... I felt oddly unthreatened, though not nearly as blasé as Zeke, who was bobbling across the street and directly toward the animal. Still, it seemed prudent to get some walls between the bear and us as quickly as possible. I grabbed Zeke and tossed him inside, abandoning our stroller with its tempting cache of fragrant groceries." The two went inside and watched the bear, who soon beat a quick retreat when a truck full of tourists went by.

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