NOS news•
A polar bear was shot dead in Iceland yesterday after being spotted near a cabin in a remote village. Before the bear was killed, the police and the Environmental Agency negotiated the matter. It was the first time since 2016 that a polar bear was seen on the ground.
“It’s not something we want to do,” the local police chief told the AP. “The bear was very close to the summer house. There lived an old woman.”
The woman was alone and locked herself in her home in the northwestern part of the country when the bear dug through the garbage outside. He contacted his daughter in Reykjavik via satellite for help.
Polar bears are not native to Iceland, but they sometimes end up there when traveling across the Greenland ice floes. Several polar bears have been spotted on the north coast in recent weeks. The animals are protected, but they can be shot if they pose a danger to people or livestock.
More hungry polar bears
In this case, it was a young bear that weighed 150-200 kilograms. The animal is taken to an institute where scientists can examine it. They check the bear for parasites and infections and assess its physical condition. The bear’s fur and skull can be kept for the institute’s collection.
Although it’s rare for polar bears to attack humans, a previous study published in the 2017 Wildlife Society Bulletin found that more and more hungry polar bears are coming ashore as sea ice disappears due to global warming.
Between 1870 and 2014, 73 attacks were recorded in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States. 20 people died and 63 people were injured. Out of a total of 73 attacks, 15 occurred in the last five years of the review period.