On The Land Safety

All visitors who are planning a wilderness expedition on their own must register their travel plan (including timelines) with the RCMP detachment located nearest to their departure point — and check in with them when they return. This will make the trip much safer.

The regional Visitor Centre in the nearest community will advise visitors of the best places to make camp and important places to be careful of.

For safety reasons, visitors are reminded that they must not litter! They should place garbage into proper campground receptacles, or pack it out. It is recommended that visitors do their cooking on a camping stove. Visitors are warned to be extremely careful wherever making a fire. They should use fire pits if they are available, or build it on rock or sand — never on moss or tundra, which can continue burning indefinitely under the surface.

Polar bears and barren land grizzly bears are extremely dangerous animals! They are attracted to trails of garbage and poor camping practices. On the Nunavut Parks website visitors can read about Polar Bear Safety from the Visitor Centre menu.

On the Parks Canada website, visitors to Nunavut should read their excellent Keep the Wild in Wildlife pages.

It is highly recommended that visitors to Nunavut request and read the bear safety brochures — ‘Safety in Polar Bear Country’ and ‘Safety in Grizzly and Black Bear Country’ — which are available from Visitor Centres and from Parks and Wildlife Officers in Nunavut communities. If visitors experience a bear problem, they should report it immediately to the nearest Parks Officer, or to the Nunavut Department of Environment Wildlife Office.