LONDON (AP) — A rare polar bear spotted outside a cottage in a remote Icelandic village was shot by police after being deemed a threat, authorities reported on Friday.
The bear was killed on Thursday afternoon in northwest Iceland after police consulted the Environment Agency, which chose not to relocate the animal, according to Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson.
“It’s not something we like to do,” Jensson stated. “In this case, as shown in the picture, the bear was very close to a summer house, where an elderly woman was inside.”
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The woman, who was alone, became frightened and locked herself upstairs as the bear searched through her garbage. She used a satellite link to contact her daughter in Reykjavik for help.
“She stayed there,” Jensson noted, explaining that other summer residents had already returned home. “She understood the danger.”
Polar bears are not native to Iceland but sometimes come ashore after traveling on ice floes from Greenland. Anna Sveinsdóttir, director of scientific collections at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, mentioned that many icebergs have been sighted off the north coast recently.
Although polar bear attacks on humans are extremely rare, a 2017 study in the Wildlife Society Bulletin indicated that the loss of sea ice due to climate change has driven more hungry bears onto land, increasing the likelihood of human conflicts.
Between 1870 and 2014, there were 73 documented polar bear attacks in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and the United States, resulting in 20 deaths and 63 injuries, with 15 of those incidents occurring in the last five years of that timeframe.
The bear shot on Thursday was the first seen in Iceland since 2016, and sightings are uncommon, with only 600 recorded since the ninth century.
While polar bears are a protected species in Iceland, they can be killed if they pose a threat to humans or livestock. Following the arrival of two bears in 2008, a task force was appointed to study the situation, concluding that killing wandering bears was the most appropriate response due to safety concerns and the high costs of returning them to Greenland.
The young bear, weighing between 150 and 200 kilograms (300 to 400 pounds), will be sent to the institute for study. Scientists collected samples from the bear on Friday to check for parasites, infections, and assess its overall health, including organ condition and body fat percentage. The pelt and skull may be preserved for the institute’s collection.
A Coast Guard helicopter searched the area where the bear was found for any others but reported no additional sightings, police said.
After the bear was taken away, the woman who initially reported the sighting chose to extend her stay in the village, Jensson confirmed.
