TALOYOAK, Nunavut - Residents in a remote Arctic hamlet are baffled by the number of hungry polar bear cubs that have wandered into their community since the fall and have had to be shot.

Six cubs have shown up since late September in Taloyoak (tah-LOW'-yoh-ahk), scavenging at the dump and peering into people's windows.

Bob Lyall of the local Hunters and Trappers Organization says the bears were up to two metres long — big enough to be potentially very dangerous.

He says it's highly unusual for yearling cubs to be on the prowl without their mothers.