Police kill rare polar bear from Iceland

LONDON –

WARNING: The image below may be disturbing to some.

A rare polar bear spotted outside a cottage in a remote village in Iceland was shot dead by police after it was deemed a threat, authorities said on Friday.

The bear was killed Thursday afternoon in northwestern Iceland after police consulted with the Environment Agency, which refused to relocate the animal, Westfjords police chief Helgi Jensson told The Associated Press.

“It’s not something we like to do,” Jensson said. “In this case, the bear was very close to the summer cottage. There was an older woman there.”

The owner, who was alone, became frightened and locked herself upstairs as the bear rummaged through her trash, Jensson said. She contacted her daughter in Reykjavik, the capital, by satellite link and called for help.

“She stayed there,” Jensson said, adding that other summer residents in the area had already gone home. “She knew about the danger.”

Polar bears are not native to Iceland, but they sometimes come ashore after traveling on ice floes from Greenland, according to Anna Sveinsdóttir, director of scientific collections at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. A number of icebergs have been spotted off the northern coast in the past few weeks.

Although polar bear attacks on humans are extremely rare, a 2017 study published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin found that the loss of sea ice due to global warming has forced more hungry bears onto land, increasing the risk of conflict with humans and increasing the risk to both parties.

Of the 73 documented polar bear attacks between 1870 and 2014 in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States, in which 20 people were killed and 63 injured, 15 occurred in the last five years of that period.

The bear shot Thursday was the first sighting in the country since 2016. Reports of its presence are relatively rare, with just 600 recorded in Iceland since the ninth century.

Although bears are a protected species in Iceland and killing them at sea is prohibited, they may be killed if they pose a threat to humans or livestock.

After the arrival of two bears in 2008, the debate over killing endangered species prompted the environment minister to set up a task force to investigate the issue, the institute said. The task force concluded that killing roaming bears was the most appropriate response.

The group said the alien species pose a threat to humans and animals, and the cost of returning them to Greenland, about 300 kilometres (180 miles) away, is prohibitive. It also found that there is a healthy bear population in eastern Greenland, where any bears likely come from.

The young bear, which weighed between 150 and 200 kilograms (300 and 400 pounds), will be taken to the institute for examination. Scientists took samples from the bear on Friday.

They will check for parasites and infections and assess the animal’s physical condition, such as the health of its organs and the percentage of body fat, Sveinsdóttir said. The skin and skull may be preserved for the institute’s collection.

Police said a Coast Guard helicopter searched the area where the bear was found for other individuals but found none.

After the shot bear was taken away, the woman who reported it decided to stay in the village longer, Jensson said.