A polar bear that appeared near a cottage in a remote Icelandic village was shot by police after being deemed a threat to local residents. The bear was killed on September 19 in northwest Iceland following consultations with the Environment Agency, which decided against relocating the animal.
“It’s not something we like to do,” said Helgi Jensson, the police chief of Westfjords, emphasizing that the bear was very close to a summer house where an elderly woman was inside.
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The woman locked herself upstairs in fear as the bear rummaged through her trash and contacted her daughter in Reykjavik for help via satellite link.
Polar bears are not native to Iceland but occasionally drift from Greenland on ice floes. The bear shot on September 19 was the first sighting in Iceland since 2016, with only 600 recorded sightings since the ninth century.
Estimated to weigh between 150 and 200 kilograms, the bear will be taken to the Icelandic Institute of Natural History for further study, where scientists will examine it for parasites and infections, assess its organ health and body fat, and may preserve its pelt and skull for the institute’s collection.
Although polar bears are a protected species in Iceland, authorities may resort to lethal measures if they pose a threat to humans or livestock.
While polar bear attacks on humans are rare, a 2017 study indicated that climate change-induced sea ice loss is driving more hungry bears onto land, increasing the risk of human encounters.
The study reported 73 documented attacks by wild polar bears from 1870 to 2014, resulting in 20 fatalities and 63 injuries among humans.
