My friend was working in James Bay ...

Sobering.

Saw a Nat Geo doc recently about a group of physicians on a camping retreat to Torngat Mountains National Park. A polar bear tore through their electric fence like nothing, grabbing one doctor stilll wrapped in the tent, by his head.

Scared off finally by their flair guns.
I took a coast guard medevac helicopter 12 hours or more to arrive.

The friends had neglected the mandatory rifled inuit guide when trecking the remote area.
After the airlift, a guide was stationed on guard with the remaining campers.
He pointed out the 16 polar bears the men mistook for snowy boulders in the surrounding hills.

Despite his injuries, the doctor made a full recovery, the bear having missed major arteries in the neck.

There are experienced inuit hunters who fell polar bears, having them drop dead only feet away from them, in a last charge of anger.

I was in James Bay last summer and the largest creature I saw was a giant mosquito when I was in and around the water and shoreline. I had my flyswatter handy in case any bears came out of the woodwork though...

I don't know what part of the world you live in, but James Bay is not even considered part of Ontario Canada's 'north country'. This is because James Bay is located SO far south.

Yeah, there's bears up there but there's also bears 100 miles north of Toronto, some of which migrate further south into suburbia at times.

You have to remember that the southern tip of James Bay which is located at the bottom end of Hudson's Bay, is only 136 miles north of the 49th Parallel, which is the southern-most extreme latitude of most of Canada and which forms the geographical Canada/US border.

Southern Ontario, being the southern-most part of Canada, sits at the same latitude as northern California but has much warmer winters than northern Cal because of the moderating effects of the Great Lakes all winter long.

I would take bears sleeping on my lawn over Canada Geese anytime!

I want to visit the polar bear capital actually haha, I will need this

I`ll never be going there, besides the fact it`s too damn cold for most of the year.

I hope you have an awesome time 😊