the hits.

Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use

words and phrases especially written for people learning English.

Coming up on the show, Mario tells about why walking is a good exercise.

We also hear the everyday grammar report.

And we close the show with the lesson of the day.

But first, Churchill, Manitoba is a small, rural Canadian town that lives with neighboring predators

and loves it.

That is because the predators, a polar bear population, attract the visitors who saved the town's economy after a military base there closed.

Tourists wanting to see the bears bring millions of dollars into the local economy.

However, the bears are entering the town more often in search of food.

Researchers say the sea ice, where the bears normally hunt, is shrinking.

Jeff York is with Polar Bears International, a non-profit environmental group based in

Manitoba.

York said, you're seeing more bears because there are more bears on the land for longer periods of time to be seen.

And they are willing to take more risks, getting closer to people.

There are about 600 polar bears in this western Hudson Bay population.

Environmentalists say that is about half what it was 40 years ago.

Humans in Churchill outnumber the bears, although not by very many.

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