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BEAR KILLED FLOWN FAR FROM LONGYEARBYEN IN 2016: Seven-year-old male brought to northeast corner of Svalbard after high-profile visit; its long-distance return was fatal

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A polar bear killed near Longyearbyen early on New Year’s Day also approached town in April of 2016, with officials opting then to tranquillize and fly it by helicopter to the northeast corner of Svalbard, adding an extra element to the current debate about whether a similar approach should have occurred this time.

bearcare
The polar bear killed on New Year’s Day also approached the edge of Longyearbyen in April of 2016, when it was stunned and flown to the northeast corner of Svalbard. Photo by The Governor of Svalbard.

That visit three years ago by the seven-year-old male bear, in addition to drawing the usual spectators to the edge of town where they could observe the helicopter pursuit across the channel at a safe distance, was seen worldwide in the debut episode of a BBC reality TV series that aired several months later.

The bear was tagged by Norwegian Polar Institute experts at the time, but did not have a location transmitter when it was shot.

Gov. Kjerstin Askholt said in a statement after the shooting at 4 a.m. on New Year’s Day there were no qualified personnel to stun and remove the bear because of the Christmas holidays. Critics suggested such experts should always be available and questioned if waiting until their return was feasible.

Askholt said it wasn’t and, given other factors such as the polar night, there were no practical alternatives to killing the bear.

“The polar bear was killed, not because of an emergency situation, but in recent days this bear has shown repeated and very persistent approaches towards Longyearbyen settlement and therefore poses a danger to people in the city,” she said. “We have made many attempts to solve the situation in ways other than killing the bear, but without success…This is the time of year when it is completely dark all day and we have very poor overview. We do not have the manpower resources to look after the population 24 hours a day.”

The bear visited Longyearbyen, reaching locations including the town center and Longyearbyen School, four times between Thursday and its final visit to the east edge of town just after midnight Wednesday. Officials chased the bear several kilometers away before shooting it at Hanaskogdalen.

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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