Polar bears aren’t native to Iceland, though an occasional vagrant arrives from Greenland. So, it was quite a surprise for an elderly resident of a remote village to find one raiding her bins. Panicked, she locked herself upstairs and called for help.
After consulting with the Icelandic Environment Agency, police arrived and shot the bear. The agency decided not to try and relocate the animal, following recommendations laid out in a 2008 study. That study concluded that moving bears back to Greenland was prohibitively expensive and suggested killing vagrant bears was the best response.
The young polar bear shot by the police. Photo: Ingvar Jakobsson
A protected species?
Polar bears are a protected species in Iceland and cannot be killed at sea. However, they can be killed if they threaten humans or livestock.
“It’s not something we like to do,” Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson told The Associated Press. “The bear was very close to a summer house. There was an old woman in there.”
This is the first polar bear sighting in Iceland since 2016. Only 600 polar bears have been recorded in Iceland since the ninth century. Experts believe this bear may have traveled from eastern Greenland on an iceberg, of which several were spotted near the north coast recently.
