Posted on 09/23/2024 9:40:13 AM PDT by Red Badger
World A polar bear was spotted on the shores of Iceland for the first time in 8 years. It was shot dead by police. September 23, 2024 / 10:50 AM EDT / CBS/AP
A rare polar bear that was spotted outside a cottage in a remote village in Iceland was shot by police after being considered a threat, authorities said Friday.
The bear was killed Thursday afternoon in the northwest of Iceland after police consulted the Environment Agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson told The Associated Press.
"It's not something we like to do," Jensson said. "In this case, as you can see in the picture, the bear was very close to a summer house. There was an old woman in there."
The owner, who was alone, was frightened and locked herself upstairs as the bear rummaged through her garbage, Jensson said. She contacted her daughter in Reykjavik, the nation's capital, by satellite link, and called for help.
"She stayed there," Jensson said, adding that other summer residents in the area had gone home. "She knew the danger."
Iceland Polar Bear Shot - This handout photo shows a polar bear that was shot by the police after being considered a threat to people nearby, authorities said, in Westfjords, Iceland, Thursday Sept. 19, 2024. Ingvar Jakobsson / AP
Polar bears are not native to Iceland but occasionally come ashore after traveling on ice floes from Greenland, according to Anna Sveinsdóttir, director of scientific collections at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. Many icebergs have been spotted off the north coast in the last few weeks.
Although attacks by polar bears on humans are extremely rare, a study in Wildlife Society Bulletin in 2017 said the loss of sea ice from global warming has led more hungry bears to land, putting them in a greater chance of conflicts with humans and leading to a greater risk to both.
In 2021, scientists in Norway found polar bears were inbreeding as the species fights to survive. A study found that on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, polar bear populations have seen a 10% loss in their genetic diversity from 1995 to 2016.
A 2020 study found that the melting sea ice is starving polar bears and that within the century, polar bears could be extinct. Declining genetic diversity increases the risk of extinction.
Of 73 documented attacks by polar bears from 1870 to 2014 in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and United States - which killed 20 people and injured 63 - 15 occurred in the final five years of that period.
More recently, a pair of polar bears attacked and killed a worker last month at a remote government radar site in the Canadian Arctic. In 2023, a polar bear emerged from a snow squall and killed a woman and her young son in in Wales, Alaska, just below the Arctic Circle.
The bear shot on Thursday was the first one seen in the country since 2016. Sightings are relatively rare with only 600 recorded in Iceland since the ninth century.
While the bears are a protected species in Iceland and it's forbidden to kill one at sea, they can be killed if they pose a threat to humans or livestock.
After two bears arrived in 2008, a debate over killing the threatened species led the environment minister to appoint a task force to study the issue, the institute said. The task force concluded that killing vagrant bears was the most appropriate response.
The group said the nonnative species posed a threat to people and animals, and the cost of returning them to Greenland, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) away, was exorbitant. It also found there was a healthy bear population in east Greenland where any bear was likely to have come from.
The young bear, which weighed between 150 and 200 kilograms (300 to 400 pounds), will be taken to the institute to study. Scientists took samples from the bear Friday.
They will be checking for parasites and infections and evaluating its physical condition, such as the health of its organs and percentage of body fat, Sveinsdóttir said. The pelt and skull may be preserved for the institute's collection.
A Coast Guard helicopter surveyed the area where the bear was found to look for others but didn't find any, police said.
After the shot bear was taken away, the woman who reported it decided to stay longer in the village, Jensson said.
Surely Al Gore and John Kerry will have something to say about this.
I know. I know. The left tells us that we're warming out the polar bears.
health of its organs
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
health of organs = dead
Interesting fact.
You can learn more real information in a few minutes on FR than you can all day with the drive-by media.
We were just there a couple of weeks ago. We heard many times from the locals on different tours we took that this is standard operating procedure. They seemed sad, but understood it to be the right thing.
“Polar” Bears which live near oceans as far south as 55 Deg. North, found in a place called “Iceland” which is 65 Deg. North
Imagine that....
In the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, it’s mandatory to carry a rifle if you go past a certain point beyond the town areas. Everyone who lives there carries, and even tourists must apply for a permit and carry a gun.
Greta Thunburg, “ping”.
A thirty Haitian feast!
My daughter is there right now doing her yearly “Puffin Chick” tossing into the sea.
Beautiful Polar Bear seen for first time in Iceland in 8 years.
Shot dead by police . But it wasn’t even a black Bear
“If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, say goodnight.” Still, Mr. Shotgun with rifled slugs does get a say in the matter if he happens to be around.
“If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, say goodnight.” Still, Mr. Shotgun with rifled slugs does get a say in the matter if he happens to be around.
:-)
‘Puffling Patrol”
If you love something, let it go.
...Then hunt it down and kill it.
Polar bears are apparently psychopaths which will pretty much attack and kill anything they see.
And hauling them back to Greenland is not economically viable.
So, sorry, he’s gotta go.
Wow, they do the same for Down Syndrome, too.
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