<DIV>For nearly a quarter century, the polar bears of Churchill were routinely run down and shot by the military, by residents and by conservation officers who were brought in during the late 1960s to protect people. According to one scientist who was there at the time, polar bears were treated more like “great white rats” than the world’s largest predator. But then something remarkable happened. During the 1970s the residents of Churchill decided that it was time to find a more peaceful way of living with polar bears.<BR>In the years that followed, scientists conducted studies on the polar bear population and in relatively short order the bears of Churchill became the most studied group of large predators in the world.</div>