Bernadette Calonego's Blog: Eventful - Posts Tagged "seals"

It is a funny coincidence but as I'm writing about a polar bear in my new mystery thriller in the Detective Calista Gates series, people I know have posted pictures on Facebook of a polar bear wandering through one of their coastal communities. It happens almost every spring in northern Newfoundland. You don't have to go to the Arctic to encounter polar bears. If you live on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland, chances are good that you'll see one through your living-room window! My favourite fisherman told me that his ancestors used to call them "water bears" because they are incredibly good swimmers. I have only seen a polar bear in nature in a net. He had been tranquilized by wildlife officers and a helicopter flew him dangling in a net across an ocean strait to Labrador.
The polar bears in northern Newfoundland and Labrador are healthy and thriving because there are so many seals and sufficient pack ice. A few years ago, a polar bear broke into a shed in Goose Cove and ate some tame ducks. And another one stuck his head into a kitchen. That was quite a scare for the family in the house, as you can imagine, But nobody was hurt or killed.
I will be back in northern Newfoundland at the end of April (right now I'm in British Columbia), and chances are small that there will still be a lonely polar bear trying to find his way home. But you never know. In my book, Detective Calista Gates will be up close and personal with one of these giants. I don't know whether I should envy her or whether I should be glad that it never happened to me... What do you think?
Bay of Evil


Bernadette Calonego